Ecstasy can be used in cancer treatment

Ecstasy has already been known to be effective against more than half of white blood cell cancers, but scientists at Birmingham University in the UK claimed they have made it 100 times more effective at suppressing growth.

Detailing their research in the journal Investigational New Drugs, the scientists said the new drug could be used by doctors to treat cancer if it can be produced in a safe form.

Professor John Gordon, who led the research, said: "This is an exciting next step towards using a modified form of MDMA to help people suffering from blood cancer."

"While we would not wish to give people false hope, the results of this research hold the potential for improvement in treatments in years to come," Professor Gordon was quoted as saying by the Daily Telegraph.

The researchers, in collaboration with the University of Western Australia, have chemically re-engineered ecstasy by taking some atoms away and putting new ones in their place.

One variant increased cancer-fighting effectiveness 100-fold. It means that if 100 gram of un-modified ecstasy was needed to get the desired effect, only one gram of the modified ecstasy would be needed to have the same effect.

Scientists say this also reduced the toxic effect on the brain. If everything is successful, a drug is still at least a decade away, they said.

Dr Julie Sharp of Cancer Research UK said: "As MDMA is a dangerous drug, the researchers need also to find out if they can create safe versions to treat people with the disease.

"Although survival rates for leukaemia have improved over the past thirty years new approaches to treatment are still needed to tackle this disease even more effectively.