ED—Apologies—I got distracted with trying to raise money to support our efforts to develop a new neuroprotectant for use in stroke and this slipped off my radar. BTW the call with the FDA was very supportive and they are opening our IND.
It sounds like we are talking about generalities here. If one assumes the anticancer agent is from the cytotoxic family of drugs it would be hard to make a case. If it came from the immune boosting family of drugs the case might be easier to envision. The question to ask is what the therapeutic window is between toxicity and efficacy and balance that against the disease being treated. For example, if one is working with late stage Alzheimer patients, the window could be significantly narrower than dealing with patients that are in the early stages and progressing slowly. There is work going on to repurpose drugs that already have been in man but failed in the indication it was being tested for. In a case like this a compound directed at diabetes could find a use in treating Alzheimers. There is a compound that is being tested in the clinic now as a possible agent to help Alzheimer patients that started out as a treatment for diabetes. Feel free to give me a call too.