Quarks & Cancer: Methadone’s Potential | ARD Podcast

Can methadone help against cancer? The opioid, known from pain therapy and drug replacement treatment, is supposed to make tumor cells more sensitive to chemotherapy – of course this arouses hopes. But why is methadone not researched more intensively? The pharmaceutical industry should deliberately ignore it because the cheap drug cannot be made money. But is methadone really the hoped -for weapon against cancer? And what about the story of the evil pharmaceutical industry? Our podcast tip for you: In four parts, Pola.Berlin tells the history of a doctor who wants to herald the future of psychotherapy with ketamine. What about this substance? You can hear our most important sources for this episode in the ARD Audiothek (all can be found at www.quarks.de/podcast/methadon-quarks-science-cops): Statement of the German Cancer Aid on “Methadone in Cancer Therapy” (German Cancer Aid, 2019) Methadon against cancer? (SternTV, 2017) Methadone as a cancer (Plusminus, 2017) Friesen, Claudia et al. Methadone, Commonly Used as Maintenance Medication for Outpatient Treatment of Opio Dependence, Kills Leukemia Cells and Overcomes Chemoresistance (Cancer Research, 2008) Friesen, Claudia et al. Cell Death Sensitization of Leukemia Cells by Opioid Receptor Activation (Oncotarget, 2013) Onken, Julia, Friesen, Claudia et al. Safety and Tolerance of D, L-Methadone in Combination with Chemotherapy in Patients with Glioma (Anticancer Research, 2017) Grinshpoon, Alexander et al.: Methadone Maintenance and Cancer Risk: An Israeli Case Registry Study (Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 2011) Brawanski, K et al. of d, L-Methadone in the Treatment of Glioblastoma in Vitro (CNS Oncology, 2018) Haas B, et al.: Methadone-Mediated Sensitization of Glioblastoma Cells IS Drug and Cell Line Dependent. (J Cancer res clin oncol, 2021) Vatter T, et al.: Against Repurposing methadone for glioblastoma therapy (biomolecules, 2020) Reddy A. et al. Overall survival Among Cancer Patients Undergoing Opioid Rotation to Methadone Compared to Ater Opioids (Journal of Palliative Medicine, 2017)