Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, β-blockers and antihistamines: A clinical trial is needed

Survival in pancreatic cancer (pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, PDAC) at just 5 months is the worst of all cancers. It is predicted to become the second highest cause of cancer deaths worldwide this decade and unlike most cancers, there has been little progress in improving survival in PDAC. Numerous studies including molecular and mechanistic studies, cancer biology studies and retrospective human epidemiological studies suggest that two well-known, approved drug classes - β-blockers and H1-antihistamines - may be beneficial and thus may potentially prolong life in patients with PDAC. In our opinion, the body of evidence has reached a point where the potential gains outweigh the very low risks involved in a clinical study in PDAC. We thus believe that it is now time for a clinical trial involving these two agents in PDAC patients. As a repurposing of generic drugs, this is not likely to be appealing to pharmaceutical companies and therefore is likely to require governmental, philanthropic and /or charitable organisational input. In this article, we opine and propose that an urgent clinical trial is needed to determine if repurposing these two orally administered, inexpensive, largely safe drug classes, either alone or in combination, could prolong survival in PDAC and thus improve the outcome for the 10,000 people worldwide who die from PDAC each week.