A cream used to treat the early signs of skin cancer may erase wrinkles and leave behind younger-looking skin, U.S. researchers said on Monday.
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Would you use a skin cancer cream to smooth out your facial wrinkles? Take a baldness drug to protect against prostate cancer? Or use Viagra to help avoid an amputation?
While most people think of medicines as single-role actors, there are a growing number of drugs that hold the potential for dual uses. Not all of these drugs are available for these hidden uses. But the so-called "off-label" use of medicines accounts for about one-fifth of all prescriptions, according to a study released last April in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Many such applications come with their fair share of controversy.
Though the hair-loss drug finasteride is recommended by some medical organizations as a preventative measure against prostate cancer, many doctors say that such a use is inefficient and ill-advised.
In the case of Viagra, which was administered to at least one patient to stimulate blood flow and help prevent amputation, no conclusive studies yet exist that confirm a definite benefit when used in patients at risk of amputation.
But in many other cases, the alternative uses are well-known in the medical community -- though perhaps not among the general public -- and are regularly exploited.
And while a November article in the journal Pharmacotherapy warned doctors to exercise more scrutiny in their prescription of drugs for purposes other than their primary intended use, it is clear that some of these MacGyvers of the pharmaceutical world are destined for double duty in the years to come.
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