A Common Antidepressant Could Help Your Body Fight Cancer

A common class of antidepressant medications might be even more useful than we thought. Research out today suggests that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, can fend off cancer and boost the immune system’s defenses against it. Scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles, led the study, published in Cell. In mice and other lab experiments, they found that SSRIs shrunk a variety of cancers, improved the immune system’s ability to kill cancer cells, and bolstered the effectiveness of immunotherapy. The researchers now hope to conduct clinical trials of SSRIs for cancer in humans. Serotonin, a hormone with many important functions, has a complicated relationship with cancer. While it appears to promote the growth of certain tumor types, it also seems to enhance our immune response to cancer. Accordingly, scientists have hoped that existing drugs that interact with serotonin, including many antidepressants, could be repurposed to fight cancer. Several years ag ... Read full article.