Antiplatelet drugs induce apoptosis in cultured cancer cells.

In order to understand if antiplatelet drugs possess direct antineoplastic property, we tested the apoptotic effect of 5 popularly marketed antiplatelet drugs in Taiwan in 6 cultured cancer cell lines (Hep 3B hepatocarcinoma, U87-MG malignant glioma, PC-3 prostate adenocarcinoma, HeLa cervical adenocarcinoma, HL-60 preleukemia and K-562 chronic myelogenous leukemia). While acetylsalicylate and flunarizine exerted no effect on these cancer cells, pentoxifyline (PTX), dipyridamole (DYA) and ticlopidine hydrochloride (T. HCl) displayed a time and dose-dependent apoptotic effect on them except for HL-60 and K-562 cells. PTX induced apoptosis in U87-MG, Hep 3B and HeLa cells, DYA in HeLa cells, while T. HCl in U87-MG, Hep 3B, PC-3 and HeLa cells. Adriamycin also provoked apoptotic effect in all 6 cell lines but neither PTX, DYA nor T. HCl acted synergy with adriamycin to HeLa cells, implicating that they may share a similar pathway for inducing apoptosis. Therefore, our results show that the antiplatelet drugs do possess antineoplastic property in vitro. A co-administration of antiplatelet drugs is noteworthy for an alternative adjunctive therapy in cancer patients.