Artemisinins as a novel anti-cancer therapy: Targeting a global cancer pandemic through drug repurposing

Augustin, Yolanda; Staines, Henry; Krishna, Sanjeev

Artemisinins are a unique class of antimalarial drugs with significant potential for drug repurposing for a wide range of diseases including cancer. Cancer is a leading cause of death globally and the majority of cancer related deaths occur in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs) where conventional treatment options are often limited by financial cost. Drug repurposing can significantly shorten new therapeutic discovery pathways, ensuring greater accessibility and affordability globally. Artemisinins have an excellent safety and tolerability profile as well as being affordable for deployment in Low and Middle Class Income Countries at around USD1 per daily dose. Robust, well designed clinical trials of artemisinin drug repurposing are indicated for a variety of different cancers and treatment settings.