![\"Arhan](\"https:\/\/magazines.uthscsa.edu\/cancer-center\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2024\/06\/rao.jpg\")
Rao is second author on a paper published in the peer-reviewed journal Cancer Letters. In mouse and human tumor cells, imipramine inhibited triple-negative and estrogen receptor-positive breast cancers that are notoriously difficult to treat in people.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile researching initiatives from the National Cancer Institute, I found that the NCI has given priority to repurposing FDA-approved drugs as cancer treatments,\u201d Rao said. \u201cThese drugs will be safe, as they are used to treat other diseases. If the same drugs work to kill cancer cells, then they can be used in clinics right away.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rao discussed the idea with his faculty mentor, Ratna Vadlamudi, PhD, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the health science center and co-leader of the Cancer Development and Progression Program at the Mays Cancer Center. The Vadlamudi lab hosted Rao while he was a student attending high school in San Antonio\u2019s Northside Independent School District.<\/p>\n
\u201cDr. Vadlamudi mentioned that an FDA-approved drug library exists and that I could test those drugs in an unbiased way to find out if they work,\u201d Rao said. \u201cI began screening candidate drugs and discovered that imipramine was able to stop the growth of cancer cells.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen human patients receive chemotherapy and other treatments, they may develop depression,\u201d Vadlamudi said. \u201cImipramine is one of the antidepressants prescribed for them, and the NCI library indicated that it might have anticancer activity. [Rao] was curious to delve into this.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Arhan](\"https:\/\/magazines.uthscsa.edu\/cancer-center\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2024\/06\/high-five.jpg\")
Rao\u2019s explorations provided evidence that imipramine has potent anticancer activity. By reducing estrogen signaling, imipramine stunts the growth of estrogen receptor-positive breast cancers, he found. The drug also interferes with DNA repair, which curbs the ability of triplenegative breast cancers to proliferate, the lab discovered.<\/p>\n
The breast cancer clinical trial is directed by Virginia Kaklamani, MD, leader of the Breast Oncology Program at the Mays Cancer Center and professor of medicine at the health science center. The team gave imipramine to women who had been newly diagnosed with breast cancer and awaited surgery.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe typically have a window of two to three weeks or so between the diagnosis and the surgery triple and this is an opportunity for us to give patients a drug and test to see how it does on the cancer tissue,\u201d Kaklamani said.<\/p>\n
The care team obtains a biopsy as part of the initial diagnosis and another tissue specimen during surgery.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis affords two time points so we can see how the cancer has changed with the imipramine treatment without having to subject women to more biopsies,\u201d Kaklamani said. \u201cWe did that in 15 patients, and overall, we were able to show that imipramine can decrease the tumor growth.\u201d<\/p>\n
This small pilot study, funded by the Mays Cancer Center, is a preliminary experiment to show that imipramine is an active drug in breast cancer, Kaklamani said.<\/p>\n
Rao, who spent summer and holiday breaks at the lab, intends to pursue a career in medicine and improve the lives of patients.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe, as a society, we have a moral obligation to help others,\u201d Rao said. \u201cMany cancer patients relapse after a couple of years, and that is so incredibly sad. We need to decrease that. We need to help researchers and society in general develop additional safe and effective treatment options. This project with imipramine is a part of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As Arhan Rao watched his grandfather become ill with cancer and die, a goal formed in the teenager\u2019s mind. He would become an oncology physician and researcher and discover a new generation of cancer treatments. While still in high school, Rao learned the fundamentals of laboratory research during his summer internships at The University of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":653,"featured_media":2492,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"magazine":[22],"issue-year":[65],"featured-story":[],"class_list":["post-2544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-power-of-solutions","magazine-cancer-center","issue-year-65"],"yoast_head":"\n