Cancer Medicine for Parkinson’s

A small clinical trial conducted by researchers from the Georgetown University Medical Center has found that cancer drug could be an effective answer to treat Parkinson’s disease. The research involved administering nilotinib; a drug used to treat patients with certain type of leukaemia, to 12 patients suffering from Parkinson’s disease and ‘dementia with Lewy bodies’, for six months.

To everyone’s amazement these patients experienced improved cognition, motor and non-motor skills. The remarkable part of the experiment was that the drug was tried on patients with advanced stages of the disease. After the experiment, three patients who could not speak were able to hold conversations. Similarly, another patient was able to walk after being confined to a wheelchair.

Nilotinib works by clearing out proteins that accumulate in the brain cells of people suffering from Parkinson’s disease. However, doctors cautioned against the use of this drug as there was no involvement of a control group.