Cancer researchers at the University of Bergen (UiB) in Norway have been experimenting with hundreds of known drugs in recent years to see how they influence cancer cells.

Their most recent discovery shows that a medication prescribed for parasites, such as tapeworms and giardia, contains a substance that kills prostate and colon cancer cells.

“We discovered that this specific substance is blocking the signaling pathway in the cancer cells, and make them stop growing. It is not often that researchers discover a substance that targets specific molecules as precisely as this one,” says Professor Karl-Henning Kalland at the department of clinical science, at UiB and leader of the research group, in a statement.

His team’s research found nitazoxanide (NTZ), an approved anti-parasitic therapy, decomposed activated Beta-catenin.

Beta-catenin is a protein found in high…