According to the study, Viagra can help in fighting cancer. The researcher found that the class of drugs currently prescribed to treat male erectile dysfunction can be included in the new trials for anti-cancer drugs.

The researchers said t that selective phosphodiesterase 5 (PDE5) inhibitors have the potential to be used in new drug trials. These PDE5 inhibitors are a class of drugs that include drugs more commonly known by their brand names – Viagra, Cialis, and Levitra.

Researcher Pan Pantziarka said that “In many respects, sildenafil is the ultimate repurposing success story. It was originally developed for angina, repurposed for erectile dysfunction and then again for pulmonary arterial hypertension, and now it has the potential to be repurposed again as an anti-cancer drug.

Pantziarka explained, “Checkpoint inhibitors have radically altered the landscape in oncology, but there remain significant challenges in terms of increasing the number and duration of responses.”

PDE5 inhibitors showed a wide range of mechanisms of action in different cancer types, such as glioblastoma multiforme – a rare disease where clinically meaningful advances are desperately needed.

The paper also explored the issue that finding new agents that are able to cross the blood-brain barrier is a challenge, which severely limits the range of drugs available to treat brain tumours. “Emerging evidence suggests that PDE5 inhibitors may be one mechanism to get this.