Repurposing anticancer drugs for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and antifibrotic drugs for the treatment of cancer: state of the art

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is an aggressive pulmonary disease which shares several molecular, patho-physiological and clinical aspects with lung cancer, including high mortality rates. The antifibrotic drugs Nintedanib and Pirfenidone have been recently introduced in clinical practice for the treatment of IPF. Nintedanib is also used for the treatment of several malignancies, including non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in combination with Docetaxel, while Pirfenidone showed some anti-neoplastic effects in preclinical studies. On the other hand, novel targeted agents and immunotherapies have been introduced in the last decade for the treatment of NSCLC, and some of them showed anti-fibrotic properties in recent studies. These evidences, based on the common pathophysiological backgrounds of IPF and lung cancer, make possible the mutual or combined use of anti-fibrotic and anti-neoplastic drugs to treat these highly lethal diseases. The aim of the present review is to depict the current scientific landscape regarding the repurposing of anti-neoplastic drugs in IPF and antifibrotic drugs in lung cancer, and to identify future research perspectives on the topic.