A DRUG used to treat African sleeping sickness could give long-term protection against the most common form of skin cancer, research has found. Those given the drug appear to have been shielded against non-melanoma cancers years after they stopped taking it. Researchers evaluated whether the drug, DFMO, had a prolonged effect among 209 people who had participated in an earlier study. Dr Howard Bailey, professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin, said they wanted to ensure there were no obvious harmful side effects. “What we saw was that the presumed benefit that people got in taking DFMO appeared to persist for years after stopping it,” he said. But he cautioned that more studies are needed before DFMO can be used as a preventative cancer treatment. The findings were presented at an American Association for Cancer Research international conference.