Hope for Parkinson’s patients: Cancer drug trial allows patients to walk

London: A cancer drug tested on people with Parkinson’s disease has produced remarkable results, giving some patients a new lease of life.

The drug, called nilotinib, has been used in the past to treat patients with a certain type of leukaemia. But in a small clinical trial in the US, 12 people with Parkinson’s disease or a similar condition called “dementia with Lewy bodies” were given small doses of nilotinib for a six-month period with startling results, The Independent said.

Dr Charbel Moussa, who led the study at Georgetown University Medical Centre in Washington DC, said: “We’ve seen patients at end stages of the disease coming back to life,” Dr Fernando Pagan said, adding: “We had people as stiff as a board at the start of the study, who were walking around, sitting down and bending legs by the end.”