
Itraconazole
Itraconazole is a medication used in the management and treatment of fungal infections.
A total of 5,221 patients newly diagnosed with colon cancer were included in this study which found: The results of the present study demonstrated that itraconazole increased the 5-year survival rate of patients with late-stage colon cancer. Furthermore, treatment with itraconazole decreased TKT expression and induced apoptosis in vitro.
Taken together, these results suggest that autophagy plays an important role in itraconazole-induced cell death. Itraconazole is a well-known medication for treating fungal infection and giving new indications to the FDA proofed drug is safe and cost-effective . Notably, itraconazole is associated with clinical outcomes and survival rates in patients with advanced gastric cancer.
More Studies
Colorectal Cancer (CRC)
This 2024 study says: In summary, our study demonstrated that itraconazole treatment could repress CRC tumor growth and glycolysis by regulating ENO1 expression. Combined with sequencing and experiments, we found that CEBPB may be the target gene of itraconazole to exert the
therapeutic effect, and silencing CEBPB also inhibited glycolysis and tumor growth. These results provide a theoretical basis for understanding the new mechanism of energy metabolism and targeted/
combined therapy in CRC.
This study contains the following observations:
Ovarian cancer
In a retrospective review, 55 patients were treated either with chemotherapy alone … or chemotherapy combined with itraconazole… The median progression-free survival time was significantly longer for those receiving itraconazole (103 days, compared with 53 days in those who did not receive itraconazole; P=0.014), as was the overall survival time (642 days, compared with 139 days in those who did not receive itraconazole;
Lung cancer
A phase II study on 23 patients randomised to either single agent pemetrexed or combined pemetrexed and itraconazole…The proportion with disease stabilisation at 3 months was higher, median progression-free survival increased and overall survival was greater compared to those treated with pemetrexed alone.
Pancreatic cancer
In a previous study, 38 patients with progressive pancreatic cancer received itraconazole (400 mg daily for 4 days) in combination with chemotherapy… In total, 35 patients who either had stable disease or had a complete or partial response continued itraconazole treatment with irinotecan-based chemotherapy. The response rate increased to 47%, with a median overall survival time of 11.4 months. This was greater than the median overall survival time of 6 months found in an earlier analysis of clinical trials…
According to Repurposing Drugs in Oncology (ReDO), Clinical trials have shown that patients with prostate, lung, and basal cell carcinoma have benefited from treatment with itraconazole, and there are additional reports of activity in leukaemia, ovarian, breast, and pancreatic cancers…There is evidence that that it may also be applicable to a number of other cancers, including glioblastoma, breast, pancreatic, and ovarian.
Biliary tract cancer
A total of 28 patients received itraconazole (400 mg daily for 4 days) in addition to chemotherapy regimens (docetaxel, gemcitabine and carboplatin in 26 patients, docetaxel and irinotecan in 2 patients). A complete response was observed in 2 patients, while 14 had a partial response. The overall response rate was 57% and the median overall survival time was 12 months. This compares to 7.2 months in a systematic review of second-line treatment for advanced biliary tract carcinoma
Leukemia
It has been demonstrated that the addition of itraconazole (100 mg twice daily) improves remission rates in acute myelogenous leukaemia and disease-free survival in acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.
Page updated January 2025