DeCure's autonomous Cancer AI scientist is researching a drug-repurposing hypothesis for breast cancer — screening already-approved drugs against its 47-gene Open Targets disease module to publish open-access research. Research is fast; the path to publication is funded in milestone stages.
Disease moduleBreast cancer maps to a 47-gene Open Targets module — the target space DeCure's AI scientist screens approved drugs against.
DeCure.ai methodSignature reversal (LINCS) plus network proximity (STRING) rank already-approved drugs likely to perturb this module — the same engine that produces DeCure.ai's repurposing hypotheses.
Repurposing thesisScreening approved medicines against this disease module, then publishing the evidence for the strongest candidate. Known pharmacology and human exposure data make the first question sharper — they do not establish safety or efficacy in a new indication.
Research record
01
ResearchComing soon
Candidate research + dossier — target rationale, drug-repurposing thesis and evidence pack.proof: Published dossier + on-chain hash
02
ValidationComing soon
In-vitro biological validation at a contract research org (CRO).proof: CRO contract + in-vitro report
03
Peer review & paperComing soon
Peer-reviewed paper published open-access (preprint + journal).proof: DOI + open-access link + on-chain hash
Current lead
approvedBosutinibApproved drugapprovedPaclitaxelApproved drugapprovedDocetaxelApproved drug
Structures already discussed alongside breast cancer in the retrieved literature, rendered from public PubChem SMILES. Which drugs appear here reflects the evidence found, not a ranked prediction.
Molecular view
human Src kinase — Bosutinib has a real, experimentally solved structure in complex with this target (PDB 4MXO, 2.105 Å). This is the drug's own deposited structure, not a prediction, and confirms it is a structurally characterised molecule rather than an untested guess.
Loading structure…
helix sheet db8drag to rotate · scroll to zoom
RCSB Protein Data Bank · entry 4MXO · 2.105 Å · ligand Bosutinib (DB8). Experimental structure, not a prediction.
What the evidence adds up to
Two reviews from 2022 and 2024 describe drug repurposing as a time- and cost-saving strategy for breast cancer, but neither provides patient-level data. The 2022 review emphasises that drug resistance remains a major challenge and that future work must group patients by clinical and biological similarities to enable personalised therapy. The 2024 review catalogues non-cancer drugs with possible anticancer effects and segregates them by drug class and proposed mechanism, but reports no response rates or survival outcomes.
A 2021 laboratory study tested repurposed drugs alone and in combination with 5-Fluorouracil against a feline mammary carcinoma cell line (FMCm) and compared results with a human breast cancer cell line (MCF-7). The feline cells showed considerable resistance to all drugs tested in isolation, and the combinations were not effective. This contrasted with the synergic responses previously observed in the human MCF-7 cells. The study does not report any clinical outcomes in patients.
A second 2024 review repeats the argument that repurposing is cheaper and faster than developing new drugs, and summarises mechanisms of action for candidate drugs. It acknowledges challenges but provides no new clinical data, no sample sizes, and no survival or response figures. Across all four papers, no repurposed drug is shown to improve survival or response rates in breast cancer patients. What is missing are prospective clinical trials that test these candidates in stratified patient populations, funding to run such trials, and evidence that any single repurposed drug or combination overcomes drug resistance in humans.
Evidence
Retrieved by DeepSearch across 234,678,978 indexed works and resolved on OpenAlex — ranked by citations, including the results that did not work.
International Journal of Molecular Sciences · 2022 · 68 citations · open access
Drug Repurposing in Cancer Therapy: Influence of Patient’s Genetic Background in Breast Cancer Treatment
AbstractCancer is among the leading causes of death worldwide and it is estimated that in 2040 more than 29 million people will be diagnosed with some type of cancer. The most prevalent type of cancer in women, worldwide, is breast cancer, a type of cancer associated with a huge death rate. This high mortality is mainly a consequence of the development of drug resistance, which is one of the major challenges to overcome in breast cancer treatment. As a result, research has been focused on finding novel therapeutical weapons, specifically ones that allow for a personalized treatment, based on patients' characteristics. Although the scientific community has been concerned about guaranteeing the quality of life of cancer patients, researchers are also aware of the increasing costs related to cancer treatment, and efforts have been made to find alternatives to the development of new drugs. The development of new drugs presents some disadvantages as it is a multistep process that is time- and money-consuming, involving clinical trials that commonly fail in the initial phases. A strategy to overcome these disadvantages is drug repurposing. In this review, we focused on describing potential repurposed drugs in the therapy of breast cancer, considering their pharmacogenomic profile, to assess the relationship between patients' genetic variations and their response to a certain therapy. This review supports the need for the development of further fundamental studies in this area, in order to investigate and expand the knowledge of the currently used and novel potential drugs to treat breast cancer. Future clinical trials should focus on developing strategies to group cancer patients according to their clinical and biological similarities and to discover new potential targets, to enable cancer therapy to be more effective and personalized.
Women s Health · 2005 · 18 citations · open access
Paclitaxel in Breast Cancer
AbstractPaclitaxel, a chemotherapeutic drug isolated from the Pacific yew, was approved for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer in 1994 and remains one of the most important agents in the treatment of patients with this disease. It is currently approved for the adjuvant treatment of node-positive breast cancer, administered sequentially after a standard doxorubicin-containing regimen, and for metastatic disease after failure of combination chemotherapy or relapse within 6 months of adjuvant chemotherapy. In this article, data on the pharmacology, clinical efficacy and safety of paclitaxel for the treatment of breast cancer will be reviewed.
The Oncologist · 2014 · 14 citations · open access
Bosutinib in Combination With the Aromatase Inhibitor Exemestane: A Phase II Trial in Postmenopausal Women With Previously Treated Locally Advanced or Metastatic Hormone Receptor-Positive/HER2-Negative Breast Cancer
AbstractBACKGROUND: Bosutinib is an oral, selective Src/Abl tyrosine kinase inhibitor with activity in breast cancer (BC). We evaluated bosutinib plus exemestane as second-line therapy in previously treated hormone receptor-positive (HR+) locally advanced or metastatic BC. METHODS: This was a phase II study with patients enrolled in a single-arm safety lead-in phase. Patients receiving bosutinib at 400 mg or 300 mg/day (based on toxicity) plus exemestane at 25 mg/day were monitored for adverse events (AEs) and dose-limiting toxicities for 28 days, and initial efficacy was assessed. After the lead-in and dose-determination phase, randomized evaluation of combination therapy versus exemestane was planned. RESULTS: Thirty-nine of 42 patients (93%) experienced treatment-related AEs including diarrhea in 28 (67%) and hepatotoxicity in 11 (26%); overall serious treatment-related AEs were recorded in 4 (10%). No liver toxicity met Hy's law criteria. Dose-limiting toxicities occurred in 5 of 13 patients receiving 400 mg (38%) and 3 of 26 patients receiving 300 mg (12%) of bosutinib; all resolved on treatment discontinuation. One patient (300 mg/day) achieved confirmed partial response; three (400 mg/day, n = 2; 300 mg/day, n = 1) maintained stable disease for >24 weeks; a best response of progressive disease occurred in 15 of 42 patients (36%). Median progression-free survival was 12.3 weeks (80% confidence interval: 11.0-15.6). CONCLUSION: The risk-benefit profile of bosutinib at 300 mg/day plus exemestane resulted in early study termination before the randomized portion. Alternative bosutinib regimens merit investigation in BC.
Discover Medicine · 2024 · 8 citations · open access
Drug repurposing: a retrospective revolution in breast cancer medicine
AbstractAbstract Breast cancer is a complex disease involving numerous pathways, making effective treatment quite challenging. Among the current scenario, drug repurposing serves as one of the best alternatives for drug discovery as a time-efficient and cost-effective strategy to determine new therapeutic indications for previously approved drug molecules. This is the reason behind the increased popularity of drug repurposing not only in the pharma industry but also in the civil sector and academics as a faster and less expensive way to increase the repertoire of licensed cancer therapies. In the current review, we have tried to perform an in-depth review of the current state of repurposed medications available for the treatment of breast cancer. Studies conducted on various noncancer medications showing possible anticancer effects were also included. Furthermore, the various repurposed drugs available for breast cancer treatment have been further segregated according to their indicative class and possible mechanism of action.
High Drug Resistance in Feline Mammary Carcinoma Cell Line (FMCm) and Comparison with Human Breast Cancer Cell Line (MCF-7)
AbstractDrug repurposing and drug combination are important therapeutic approaches in cancer therapy. Drug repurposing aims to give new indications to drugs, rather than the original indication, whereas drug combination presupposes that the effect that is obtained should be more beneficial than the effect obtained by the individual drugs. Previously, drug repurposing and the combination of different drugs was evaluated in our research group against human breast cancer cells (MCF-7 cells). Our results demonstrated that the response obtained through the combination of drugs, when compared with the single drugs, led to more synergic responses. Therefore, using potential drugs for repurposing, combined with a reference drug in breast cancer (5-Fluorouracil), was the major aim of this project, but for the first time using the feline mammary carcinoma cell line, FMCm. Surprisingly, the feline neoplastic cells demonstrated considerable resistance to the drugs tested in isolation, and the combination was not effective, which contrasted with the obtained MCF-7 cells' response.
DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · 2024 · 0 citations
Research progress in drug repurposing in the treatment of breast cancer
AbstractBreast cancer has become one of the most prevalent cancers among women worldwide, posing a significant burden on their health. Current standard therapies are often expensive and associated with the risk of drug resistance. Drug repurposing has gained increasing attention as a cost-effective and time-saving strategy in pharmaceutical research. Many drugs already in clinical use or undergoing clinical trials can be repurposed for the treatment of new clinical indications. Based on a comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms of action of these drugs and the pathophysiological processes of breast cancer, researchers can better identify drugs with potential anti-breast cancer properties and translate them into clinical practice. This paper provides a review of the current research on repurposing existing drugs for breast cancer treatment, summarizes the mechanisms of action of these drugs, and discusses the challenges associated with the strategy of drug repurposing.
[A clinical study of reasonable doses of docetaxel salvage therapy for patients with metastatic breast cancer].
AbstractOBJECTIVE: To evaluate the correlation of clinical effects and reasonable doses of docetaxel salvage therapy for patients with metastatic breast cancer. METHODS: We reviewed retrospectively the clinical records of patients with metastatic breast cancer treated with docetaxel and statistically analyzed the correlation between clinical effects and reasonable doses of docetaxel. RESULTS: The objective response rate and clinical benefit rate of docetaxol in patients with metastatic breast cancer were 27.0% and 35.0%, respectively, and the median progression free survival (PFS) was 5.0 (3.8 - 6.3) months. In the analysis at a single dose level, the clinical benefit rate and PFS of the ≥ 90.0 mg/m(2) docetaxel group were superior to that of the < 90.0 mg/m(2) group (P = 0.008, P = 0.045). Multi-dose level group stratified analysis showed that the docetaxel < 75.0 mg/m(2) group was better than the 75.0 - 84.9 mg/m(2) PFS group (P = 0.018), and the ≥ 95.0 mg/m(2) group was better than the 75.0 - 84.9 mg/m(2) group (P = 0.048). In patients who received >third line treatment or previously received paclitaxel adjuvant therapy, the PFS of the ≥ 94.9 mg/m(2) docetaxel group was 6.0 months, better than the 3.0 months of the 75.0 ∼ 84.9 mg/m(2) group (P = 0.031; P = 0.021). CONCLUSION: There is a clear correlation between clinical effects and reasonable doses of docetaxel salvage therapy in patients with metastatic breast cancer.
Disease module: DeepOracle (Open Targets). Structures: RDKit from PubChem SMILES. Literature: retrieved by DeepSearch across 234,678,978 indexed works (targeted per-candidate search), resolved on OpenAlex.
DeCure is a research and publication project, not medical advice and not a treatment. "DeCure for X" describes a research goal, not a claim that a cure exists. Backing a cure is a contribution to fund the research — it is not an investment, and confers no yield, royalty, equity or IP ownership. Papers are published open-access by the DeCure.ai DAO.
