Targeting Malignancies with Disulfiram (Antabuse): Multidrug Resistance, Angiogenesis, and Proteasome

Abstract

An old drug, Antabuse (disulfiram), used for decades in alcohol aversion therapy, and its metabolite Ditiocarb were shown from 1970s to suppress cancer growth in vivo and even in human patients. The drug targets multidrug resistance, angiogenesis, invasion, and proteasome. Today, there are ongoing clinical trials of Antabuse as an adjuvant therapy against lung cancer and as a monotherapy against cancers metastasizing to liver. The larger clinical trials, if appropriate, will need support from governments and charities to get the generic drug into the clinic as a "non-profit" drug.