In a recent study, a drug that is given to late-stage cancer patients to help alleviate the constipation brought on by morphine has been proven to extend their lives. Methylnaltrexone, a drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2008 to treat opioid-induced constipation, can play a role in cancer therapy, said researchers who introduced their findings at the meeting of the American Society of Anesthesiologists in San Diego.

Jonathan Moss, lead author of the study and professor of anesthesia and critical care at the University of Chicago said that early on, they already began to suspect that methylnaltrexone may stop cancer growth. After being in the lab for a decade trying to determine how this drug affects cancer, we have the first evidence that it can decrease tumor growth and extend survival in patients who react to the drug.

The study was a contemplative survival analysis of 229 patients across two random and controlled clinical trials regarding the comfort patients get from constipation in the late stages of cancer and other terminal diseases. Opioids like morphine are noted to cause severe constipation that most often cannot be managed by traditional laxatives. In these trials, the study gave 117 cancer patients methylnaltrexone (marketed as Relistor) for opioid-induced constipation, while the remaining 112 were given a placebo.

Just over half or 57% of those who received the drug experienced relief from constipation. The other 43% did not. The findings stated that those who received and responded to Methylnaltrexone lived generally twice as long (118 days versus 58 days) as opposed to those who did not respond or were given the placebo.

However, the drug only works for those patients diagnosed with cancer. It did not have any life-extending effects on patients with other sickness like congestive heart failure, advanced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or neurologic diseases.

Researchers are not sure how the life extending effect of the drug works, but they are continuing to study the matter.