Kidney cancer drug shown to speed up heart attack recover and prevent second attack

Experts are saying a cancer drug could help speed up recovery in heart attack patients and cut the risk of a second attack.

Researchers at Cambridge University have found that an injection of aldesleukin increases levels of a rare white blood cell that protects the heart, and experts are now trialling the drug, which is normally used to treat kidney and skin cancer, on 60 heart attack patients in England, following promising results in small studies.

If ongoing trials are shown to be successful, the researchers say the treatment could “revolutionise heart attack treatment”.

Currently, over 100,000 people are hospitalised every year in the UK due to heart attacks, and around one in five go on to have a second heart attack.

Aldesleukin is currently used to treat people with skin or kidney cancer.  The drug works by increasing the number and activity of white blood cells, which can help the immune system kill cancer cells.

The researchers at Cambridge first tested the drug on mice, before launching a clinical trial of 12 heart attack patients, while an additional four patients received a placebo injection.  The results of the trial found that both the mice and human trials of aldesleukin had increased levels of immune cells that protect the heart.

Dr Tian Zhao, a British Heart Foundation clinical lecturer in cardiovascular medicine at the University of Cambridge, said “Right now, there is no way to stop the immune system, which gets activated after a heart attack, from mistakenly damaging the heart.

“If our clinical trial shows that aldesleukin works the same way in people as it does in mice, by harnessing the “good cops” of our immune system, we may have found a way to help the heart heal after a heart attack.”

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Posted by Tony May, Partner/head of Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

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