Parkinson’s patients ‘owed’ more research into using cancer drug as treatment

A small clinical trial showed that cancer drug Nilotinib may reverse late-stage Parkinson’s disease, potentially enabling participants to speak and walk again for the first time in years.

President and co-founder of The Cure Parkinson’s Trust, Tom Isaacs, has called for a close follow up of this small study to ensure that any opportunity for a breakthrough in the treatment of Parkinson’s is not missed.

Isaacs said: ‘Nilotinib is a case in point. When people with Parkinson’s volunteer for clinical trials and feel the type of marked improvements to their symptoms and wellbeing as those reported in this study, we owe it to them, and indeed everyone, to follow the results up as quickly and as rigorously as possible.”