An active ingredient in the drops has been found to contain a leukaemia-killing compound, which gets rid of the cancer without harming healthy blood cells.
The discovery could result in the first new treatment for acute myeloid leukaemia in 30 years, experts said.
Scientists at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, University of Cambridge, University of Nottingham suggest it could prove an alternative to chemotherapy.
Acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) is a form of blood cancer can affect people of all ages.
Around 2,600 people are diagnosed with it each year in the UK and even after you've had treatment, there's still a significant risk that the condition will return at some point during the next few years.
It develops in the cells in the bone marrow, crowding out healthy cells and causing life-threatening infections and bleeding.
Symptoms tend to develop over a few weeks and become increasingly severe, including pale skin, tiredness, bleeding and frequent infections.
We don't really know why AML happens but certain factors are thought to increase your risk, including previous chemotherapy, smoking and genetic disorders.
The main treatment over the past 30 years has been chemotherapy – but for most people it doesn't cure their cancers.
But this new study may have revealed a potential new treatment approach for aggressive and normally untreatable blood cancers.
Symptoms of leukemia
There are no specific signs or symptoms which would allow for a doctor to make a diagnosis without lab tests.
In all types of leukaemia symptoms are more commonly caused by a lack of normal blood cells than by the presence of abnormal white cells.
As the bone marrow becomes full of leukaemia cells, it is unable to produce the large numbers of normal blood cells which the body needs.
This can lead to:
- Anaemia
- Weakness and tiredness
- More frequent infections
- Fever
- Bleeding and bruising
Scientists have investigated how inhibiting – or switching off – one gene can kill AML cells in the hope of finding a new therapy to treat the disease.
They first showed how the disruption of certain genes could kill AML cells.
Then they went on to study a compound which was being used to develop an eye drop treatment for retinal neovascular disease – the growth of new blood vessels on the retinal surface that bleed spontaneously and cause vision loss.
“We have discovered that inhibiting a key gene with a compound being developed for an eye condition can stop the growth of an aggressive form of acute myeloid leukaemia without harming healthy cells," said Dr George Vassiliou, joint leader of the research from the Wellcome Sanger Institute and the Wellcome-MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute.
"This shows promise as a potential approach for treating this aggressive leukaemia in humans.”
Professor David Bates from the University of Nottingham said that the research "bodes will" for the potential development of a new therapy for leukaemia.
"It will take some time, but there is real promise for a new treatment on the horizon for patients with this aggressive cancer."
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