Source: abclocal.go.com/wjrt
Author: Leslie Toldo

Could Viagra be the next cancer cure? HealthFirst reporter Leslie Toldo shows us why doctors think some impotence drugs may be as versatile as aspirin. E-D, or erectile dysfunction drugs, are being explored as treatments for more than a dozen diseases and health problems.

They’re the images of happy couples that helped make erectile dysfunction drugs a $3 billion business. But now doctors say those little pills may also save lives.

“I did ask them what on earth they were talking about,” said cancer patient Brian Kumnick.

Kumnick is fighting throat cancer. He’s been through months of radiation and surgery. “Well, the radiation, it’s barbaric. It’s really barbaric, and I’ve lost my taste buds, for example. I can’t taste anything. Water tastes like acid going down.”

He’s part of a clinical trial to see if the E-D drug Cialis can cure head and neck cancers. “It’d be really nice to just take a pill that has a pleasant side effect,” Kumnick said.

In preliminary studies, doctors at Johns Hopkins say Cialis energized patients’ immune systems so their bodies could battle the cancer cells. Next, they’ll test to see if the drug also shrinks tumors.

Dr. Joseph Califano is a professor in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital. “When we looked at the blood of head and neck cancer patients, we could get their immune response to rev up to near normal levels, whereas they were suppressed maybe 75 percent, sometimes even 80 percent.”

From fighting cancer to helping hearts and lungs, doctors have found another use for Viagra. Genevieve suffers from pulmonary hypertension. Lack of oxygen causes her to pass out.

“We just hear heart transplant, lung transplant. It was devastating. She’s my little girl,” said Genevieve’s mother, Sandra Hernandez.

Instead of a transplant, doctors prescribed Viagra in liquid form to open up her blood vessels. “Nitric oxide was developed for these types of issues in the lungs, and one of the byproducts was, hey, this medication also can dilate blood vessels in other parts of the body and treat erectile dysfunction,” explained Dr. James Swift.

“It’s very exciting to work with drugs that have already had safety data documented on them because they can be very quickly moved into helping patients,” noted Califano.

Other conditions being assessed for treatment with E-D drugs include diabetes, multiple sclerosis, chronic pelvic pain, strokes and even memory loss and learning disabilities.