Ketamine may have the power to kill cancer

Ketamine may offer hope in the fight against cancer, scientists say.

Promising laboratory tests have shown that the horse tranquilizer and party drug can kill tumor cells.

Experts believe it may block a receptor that promotes tumor growth.

Although the effect has not been demonstrated in humans, the team at Imperial College London hopes that similar results can be observed in further laboratory studies and in patients.

However, in-depth studies involving thousands of cancer patients are needed before ketamine is ever introduced as a treatment, meaning any development would be years away at best.

Laboratory tests suggested that ketamine caused “cancer cell death” in both brain and lung cancer cells

Ketamine is only licensed in the UK as an anesthetic but can also be prescribed as a pain reliever.

These versions are medical grade and proven safe.

However, they can still cause hallucinations, as can the version sold on the street for just £3 each.

Anyone caught in possession of the Class B drug faces a sentence of five years in prison and an unlimited fine.

Currently, surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy are the most commonly used cancer treatments.

However, researchers around the world are looking for other treatments to improve care and survival rates. It is expected that up to half of people will develop this disease during their lifetime.

The latest study was conducted by scientists from Imperial College London, Hirosaki University and Nippon Medical School in Japan, and China’s National Clinical Research Center for Child Health.

They said the effects of ketamine on cancer cells were unclear, so they tested whether the drug could slow their growth and production.

As part of a laboratory experiment, they exposed human lung and brain cancer cells removed from the body and grown in a humidified incubator to different concentrations of ketamine, while some were not exposed to the drug at all to achieve the effect not. a test

The researchers photographed the samples and analyzed them with lasers before they were exposed to the drug and 24 hours later.

The results, published in the European Journal of Pharmacology, showed that cancer growth and spread were suppressed in cells exposed to ketamine – with the greatest effect seen in cells exposed to the highest dose.

This means that the activity of the cancer cells is significantly reduced and is less aggressive, the researchers said.

The results also showed that there was a significant increase in cell number during late apoptosis – when tumors destroy themselves.

Researchers believe the drug works by blocking a receptor called N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA), which regulates tumor size, spread and severity of cancer.

The team noted that the study used “relatively high” concentrations of ketamine.

And the results don’t necessarily mean the drug will work the same way in patients, they said.

It comes after Friends star Matthew Perry died from the “acute effects” of ketamine in October.

He was found in his hot tub with similar levels of the drug in his system as a hospital patient under general anesthesia.

A year before his death, he published a tell-all memoir with shocking details about his drug and alcohol addiction.

But he said in October 2022 that he had been sober for 18 months, although that was a year before his death.

Ketamine, also known as Special K, Ket or Kit Kat, was popular as a party drug in the late 1990s, when it was often taken at late-night raves.

But its popularity waned in the 2000s when it became a Schedule III drug and concerns arose about side effects, including hallucinations and, in rare cases, seizures.

However, the drug is now making a comeback and studies show it is making its way back into the party scene.

Earlier this year it was dubbed Britain’s “campus killer” when it was revealed it had caused 41 student deaths since 1999, according to the National Program on Drug Abuse Deaths.

Seven British students died in 2021 alone, for which the most recent dates are available.