Old drug offers new tricks for fighting cancer

DFMO shows promise at extremely low doses

SAN DIEGO — A drug once envisioned as a treatment for established cancers might instead help prevent the occurrence of colorectal cancer. Other work suggests the uses for this old drug might extend to a deadly childhood brain cancer.

Scientists first synthesized the drug, DFMO, in 1979, but since then it has developed a reputation as a jack of all trades and master of few.