Potential role of antidepressants as part of anticancer therapy

Abstract

Antidepressants are widely used as part of adjuvant analgesic therapy. Since in vitro studies show that antidepressants have potent anticancer properties, it raised the possibility of a potential role as a part of anticancer therapy.

Aim: To estimate possible favorable effect of Mianserin (M) in lung cancer patients: (1) potential influence on survival due to anticancer properties, (2) improvement of patients psychological pattern and health-related quality of life (HRQoL).

Methods: Two groups of advanced NSCLC patiens were included:52pts treated with CT with or without M and 60pts treated with BSC with or without M. Differences in response rates (only for CT treated group), in overall survival (OS) and HRQoL (based on EORTC QLQ-30 and QLQ-LC 13) within (sub)groups were evaluated.

Results: The RR difference within the CT subgroups treated with or without M, was not statistically significant: 8/24 (33.33%) vs 6/28 (21.43%). There was significant difference in median OS with 95% CI for the different treatment subgroups (only BSC, BSC plus M, only CT and CT plus M), respectively: 6 (5-6), 7 (6-8), 8 (7-10) and 10.5 (10-13) months (p=1.89*10-15). Pts receiving M (and CT or BSC) had significantly better OS (p=0,0012). CT treated pts receiving M had significantly better survival comparing to those not receiving M (p=0.0015). BSC treated pts receiving M had also significantly better survival than those without M (p=0.003). M treated pts subgroups had significantly higher scores of QLQ-C30 and LC13 i.e. better HRQoL as well.

Conclusion: Benefit of antidepressants as part of anticancer therapy noted should be further investigated in larger patients population studies with different antidepressant drugs.