Repurposing of the Macrolide Antibiotic Clarithromycin for the Prevention of Lung Cancer.

ABSTRACT: Drug repurposing is the process of reusing existing pharmaceuticals for novel clinical purposes, which offers advantages such as streamlined clinical trial access and reduced drug development costs. Clarithromycin (CAM), a member of the macrolide antibiotics family, is a promising candidate for repurposing in cancer therapy due to its known preclinical and clinical immunomodulatory and anticancer properties. In the current study, we investigated whether CAM could be repurposed as a preventive treatment for KRAS-mutant lung cancer, a subtype of lung adenocarcinoma that is strongly associated with heavy smoking. CCSPCre; LSL-KrasG12D mice at an early stage of tumor development were treated with different doses of CAM for 10 weeks. While exhibiting an excellent safety profile, CAM was able to

SUBMITTER: Deng S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12598927 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature