Off-label use of a drug refers to prescribing a medication for a different purpose than those formally approved by the FDA and found in the package labeling of the drug. It’s common, and it’s legal. In a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine, researchers found roughly 1 in 10 prescriptions were written for off-label use. It is so common that you may not realize that you have probably been prescribed a drug “off-label” at one time or another by your doctor. The FDA approves medications that are shown to be safe and effective for a particular use. FDA does not mandate how a doctor practices medicine or what drugs they prescribe for any particular illness.
Studies suggest that from 30 to 50 percent of prescriptions in oncology in the U.S. are off-label. Off-label uses that become standard-of-care treatments are listed in treatment guidelines by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN). Patients might not even know that the drug they are using is not technically approved by the FDA for their cancer type. For example, chemotherapy with carboplatin and paclitaxel were originally approved for treating ovarian cancer: carboplatin in 1989 and paclitaxel in 1992. NCCN guidelines support off-label use of carboplatin, paclitaxel to treat more than a dozen cancer types, such as head and neck cancer, esophageal cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer, bladder cancer.
At Omega Precision Oncology, we go steps further in drug repurposing or off label use. We use the existing non-cancer drugs as new treatments for cancer. Due to their low toxicity, we use off-label drugs in high-order combinations with multiple repurposed drugs. The cocktail is formed based on extensive medical literature research and our own experimental studies.
Those drugs can be considered in particular cases:
Albendazole
Alpha Lipoic Acid
Artesunate
Ascorbate Sodium
Atorvastatin
Berberine
Azithromycin
Caffeine
Vitamin D3
Celebrex
Cimetidine
clarithromycin
Diclofenac
Dipyridamole
Disulfiram
Doxycycline
Erythromycin
Etodolac
Fenbendazole
Fenofibrate
Hydroxycholoroquine
Indomethacin
Itraconazole
Ketoconazole
Ketorolac
Levofloxacin
Lithium
Loratadine
Mebendazole
Megace
Melatonin
Meloxican
Metformin
Naltrexone
Niclosamide
Nicotinamide
Nifedipine
Nitroglycerin
Omeprazole
Pantoprazole
Phenylbutyrate
Pioglitazone
Propranolol
Ranitidine
Sodium Bicarbonate
Valproic Acid