Link to the video is here: Hydralazine For Cancer

Hydralazine for Cancer: What’s Real, What’s New, and What’s Being Oversold

A 70-year-old blood pressure drug called hydralazine is suddenly all over cancer news, being promoted as a breakthrough for glioblastoma (GBM). Many cancer patients searching for alternative cancer treatments are seeing claims that this repurposed drug stops tumor growth. To understand whether hydralazine belongs in real cancer treatment for GBM or other tumors, we have to look carefully at the science explained in the newest oncology data.

What Hydralazine Really Is

Hydralazine is not a new drug. It has been used since 1953 to treat high blood pressure by relaxing blood vessels. Long before modern drug design, hydralazine was discovered by trial and error, not precision engineering. That history matters because hydralazine’s effects on cancer epigenetics and oxygen sensing were only discovered decades later.

How Hydralazine Helps Chemotherapy

In 1989, researchers found that hydralazine increases blood flow to tumors. That means chemotherapy drugs can reach cancer cells more effectively. This is similar to how some modern cancer therapy drugs normalize blood supply. For cancers like breast cancer, prostate cancer, lung cancer, colon cancer, and colorectal cancer, improved drug delivery can significantly improve response.

Epigenetics and DNA Methylation

Later studies revealed that hydralazine alters DNA methylation, one of the key mechanisms of cancer epigenetics. Cancer cells often silence tumor-suppressor genes and immune-recognition markers through DNA methylation epigenetics. Hydralazine can reverse some of that silencing, making cancer cells visible again to immune cells and cancer immunotherapy.

In cancer cell lines, hydralazine restored tumor suppressor activity and slowed tumor growth. But cell culture studies are only the lowest level of biomedical evidence.

What Clinical Trials Actually Show

Ten clinical trials have tested hydralazine in cancer therapy. Most combined it with valproate, another epigenetic drug. One early breast cancer treatment study showed an 81% response rate, including 31% complete responses just from those two drugs. Other trials showed hydralazine could re-sensitize tumors to chemotherapy after resistance developed.

However, because hydralazine was almost always combined with valproate, researchers cannot separate which drug caused which effect.

What’s New for GBM

The October 2025 brain cancer paper revealed that hydralazine blocks an oxygen-sensing enzyme called ADO. This forces tumors into a low-oxygen hibernation state. In mouse models of glioblastoma, tumors stopped growing completely.

This looks powerful — but growth arrest is not cancer elimination. Tumors remain alive and must be suppressed continuously.

The Two Big Limitations

First, hydralazine does not cure GBM — it holds tumors in dormancy. This makes hydralazine a possible adjunct to cancer treatment, not a standalone alternative treatment for cancer.

Second, hydralazine does not cross the blood-brain barrier. In the study, the drug was injected directly into the brain. Pills can not reach brain tumors, so use of hydralazine for GBM would require placing a pump or catheter into the brain.

The Real Opportunity

Hydralazine is safe, inexpensive, and already FDA-approved. Combined with beta blockers as it is usually prescribed, it also reduces stress hormones that worsen cancer. Used intelligently, hydralazine could support chemotherapy, cancer immunotherapy, and have direct anti-cancer effects.

But for GBM, expectations must be realistic. Drug repurposing is powerful — hype is not.

Disclaimer:  This content is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. It does not replace guidance from your healthcare provider. Cancer and treatment decisions are highly individual—always consult your physician or qualified healthcare professional regarding your specific situation.
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