Chemopreventive potential of Singulair (montelukast sodium)

SandiaBuddy

Singulair is a popular drug to treat asthma and allergies, which was very effective for me, but which I discontinued on my cancer diagnosis because I thought it inhibited my immune system, which I wanted to be at its best to fight cancer.  However, Spring winds and pollen really effected me this year and out of despair, I took a Singulair pill.  I then decided to research how much it could hurt me.  To my surprise, preliminary research shows Singulair could help prevent cancer.  First, there is a population study in Taiwan, where, for people with asthma, taking Singular resulted in a 60 to 78% reduction in the occurrence of lung, colorectal, gastric and liver cancer.  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4823742/ The same researcher then did a follow-up test tube study of its effect on lung cancer and said:

 [I]n our previous nationwide population-based cohort study, we found that cysteinyl leukotriene receptor antagonists (LTRAs) decreased cancer risk in a dose-dependent manner in asthma patients, and the significant chemo-preventing effect of LTRA was mainly observed in lung, breast, colorectal, and liver cancers. LTRAs, such as montelukast and zafirlukast, are widely used for treating allergic asthma and rhinitis, while montelukast was about ten times more widely used than zafirlukast in asthma patients in Taiwan. The leukotriene pathway, in addition to its well-known role in allergic disease, is also responsible for carcinogenesis and tumor-mediated immune-suppression. Few in vitro studies have shown the anti-cancer effect of montelukast in various genital and urological cancer cells, and only a few in vivo studies have reported the anti-cancer effect of leukotriene pathway inhibitors. . .

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Montelukast induced lung cancer cell death via the nuclear translocation of AIF. This study confirmed the chemo-preventive effect of montelukast shown in our previous study, as well as suggested the molecular basis of the effect. Due to its good safety profiles, montelukast deserves further study to define its role as a cancer-preventing agent, as well as to be used as an adjuvant to standard anti-cancer treatment (internal citations omitted). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5535846/

Test tube studies also indicate Singulair and the related drug Accolate (Zafirlukast) has a helpful effect on certain lines of breast cancer http://journal.waocp.org/article_57741_ac929bdc5113537021dcfd4fdf8c56dc.pdf , as well as prostate cancer http://www.ijps.ir/article_25444_0e0707bb68f5bbd9ca6d1b64ce705b03.pdf .

Noteably, I was taking Singulair most of the time when I developed colon cancer, so it is not fail safe.  However, personally, I have decided to resume taking Singulair because it is effective in treating allergies and asthma for me, plus it may well have an anti-cancer effect.

Another recent study: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30144515

JanJan63

Well, that's really

Well, that's really interesting! Yeah, you might as well keep taking it. It's going to make you feel better and maybe it'll help with the cancer. That's pretty cool!

Jan