Clomipramine
What is Clomipramine?
Clomipramine is a drug used for depression, called a tricyclic anti depressant. Some researchers think it might help to treat glioma brain tumours. There has been some lab based research that showed the drug could encourage death of cancer cells, but not healthy brain cells.
Clomipramine research
Source: Cancer Research UK
Clomipramine is a drug used for depression, called a tricyclic anti depressant. Some researchers think it might help to treat glioma brain tumours. There has been some lab based research that showed the drug could encourage death of cancer cells, but not healthy brain cells. The researchers say this is encouraging.
A lot more research is needed before we know whether clomipramine can help to treat people with gliomas. There have been no trials reported using clomipramine in people with brain tumours and we are not aware of any trials currently recruiting patients.
Brain Tumor Research
Source: Brain Tumor Research
Research paper title: The effect of tricyclic antidepressants on cutaneous melanoma cell lines and primary cell cultures.
What we’ve learnt: Tricyclic antidepressants are a class of drug that is effective in treating a number of tumours. In this case, melanoma (skin cancer) cells were treated with tricyclic antidepressants, including clomipramine, and the results were found to be better than with a currently used melanoma drug. Melanoma carries a higher than average risk of metastasising and spreading to the brain, thus understanding how these drugs work against this type of cancer will be an important step for devising future treatments for the prevention and cure of brain tumours.
Published Clinical Trials / Studies / Reviews
Reversal of doxorubicin-resistance in solid tumors by clomipramine.
Where can I get this treatment and more information?
Talk to your doctor/oncologist.
Online suppliers include brightside.com
Page updated 2023