# UBC4: A Repurposed Drug Regimen for Adjunctive Use During Bladder Cancer Treatment

## TL;DR

This paper proposes a new drug regimen called UBC4 to help treat bladder cancer by repurposing existing drugs.

## Contribution

The novel contribution is identifying four repurposed drugs (ramelteon, fluoxetine, dapsone, and celecoxib) with preclinical evidence of inhibiting bladder cancer growth.

## Key findings

- The UBC4 regimen includes four drugs with low risk and potential to inhibit bladder cancer growth.
- Preclinical data supports the use of UBC4 as an adjunct to standard bladder cancer treatments.
- The regimen is justified for clinical trials due to the fatal nature of metastatic bladder cancer.

## Abstract

After it has metastasized, bladder cancer, the malignant transformation of the bladder urothelium, continues to be a common cause of death after maximal use of all currently available standard treatments. To address this problem in 2025, the drug repurposing movement within oncology aims to identify medicines in common general medical care use that have data indicating that they can interfere or inhibit a growth driving element that has been identified in bladder cancer. This paper now outlines extensive preclinical data showing that four drugs from general medical practice meet these criteria—the melatonergic drug ramelteon, the antidepressant fluoxetine, the antibiotic dapsone, and the analgesic drug celecoxib. This is the UBC4 regimen, meant as a possible adjunct added to standard treatments of metastatic bladder cancer. Three factors justify a clinical pilot trial of UBC4: (1) the UBC4 drugs are usually well tolerated and carry a low risk of harm, (2) the commonly fatal outcome of bladder cancer once it has widely metastasized, plus (3) the strong preclinical database showing UBC growth inhibition by each of the individual UBC4 drugs as outlined in this paper.