DELIVERY OF REPURPOSED DRUGS FOR CANCER: OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES

Shweta Raj Rajeshwari*, Dr. Prashant Shukla and Anubhav Dubey

ABSTRACT

Cancer can be seen as a global burden on the healthcare system as a large number of cases of newly infected as well as mortality rate have been on the rise i.e., 18.1 million cases of new patient’s affected from cancer and 9.6 million of peoples died because of this life-threatening disease. Common types of cancers occurring in humans are breast cancer, lung cancer, and colorectal cancer mostly seen in females. There are high chances of death in these cancer patients due to the development of resistance very rapidly against cancer chemotherapies provided cancer heterogeneity as well as chances of metastases. The patients that are suffering from this disease might have chances of developing other morbidities also that can contribute to the severity of the disease. The review majorly focuses on different types of cancer, characterization of biomarkers to determine the severity of the disease, and its therapeutic responses are focused in this review paper. Majorly focusing on repurposing previously existing drugs for their new uses that help raise the treatment spectrum that will be challenging as well as taken as an opportunity for developing the old drugs for their new uses that will ultimately save the cost of research and time to develop a new drug. The severity of the disease and various adverse effects associated with it emerges from the need of repurposing the previously existing drugs for the treatment purpose of this deadly disease to improve the quality of a patient’s life. Concluding the work with clinical complications associated with the disease, its etiology, pathophysiology & significance of the treatment that together will provide an effective outcome.

Keywords: Cancer, repurposed drugs, etiology, pathophysiology, drug deliver.