Anticancer effects of cimetidine

Abstract

Cancer continues to be a major health problem for those in developed countries being a leading cause of death worldwide. Chemotherapy is able to kill some cancer cells especially the more rapidly replicating tumor cells, but they were nonspecific, characterized by low therapeutic index and associated with a wide range of side effects. Therefore the anticancer field still searching for treatments to avoid these side effects. The  in vitro  method was used to investigate the effect of pure cimetidine   on four types of tumor cell lines [HeLa ( human cervical cancer cell line, Passages 18-25), Rhabdomyosarcoma ( RD, at 75 passages), Ahmad-Majeed-Glioblastoma-Multiform-2005 (AMGM-5, human cerebral glioblastoma multiform at passages 75-84), Ahmed-Mohammed-Nahi-2003 (AMN-3, spontaneous mammary adenocarcinoma at 158 passages) and normal cell line Rat Embryo Fibroblast (REF, at 87 passages)] in different concentrations and at different exposure times by  MTT assay. The results showed that cimetidine exerted significant cytotoxic effects with all concentrations used (31.25-1000 µg) on all types of cell lines. Because of cytotoxic activity, good pharmacokinetic characteristics and the safety of drug which used for many years in the treatment of peptic ulcer disease, we can conclude that these characteristics make cimetidine a valuable treatment for many types of cancer.