According to recent research in Germany, methadone is surprisingly effective at killing untreatable leukemia cells. Methadone is a drug primarily used to wean addicts from opiates. The new finding gives hope to leukemia sufferers who have been unsuccessful with chemotherapy and radiation. The study's senior author, Claudia Friesen, Ph.D., of the Institute of Legal Medicine at the University Ulm, commented:

"Methadone kills sensitive leukemia cells and also breaks treatment resistance, but without any toxic effects on non-leukemic blood cells ... We find this very exciting, because once conventional treatments have failed a patient, which occurs in old and also in young patients, they have no other options."

This is the first study to explore methadone as a treatment for leukemia. Researchers discovered that the effectiveness of methadone in killing non-resistant leukemia cells was comparable to standard chemotherapies and radiation treatments against non-resistant leukemia cells. They also found that methadone killed leukemia that was resistant to multiple chemotherapies and to radiation. Researchers are hopeful that the agent may be effective against other types of cancer as well. (Sources: ScienceDaily.com)

Labels: addiction, leukemia, methadone