Johns Hopkins researchers discovered that a drug commonly used to treat toenail fungus also can block angiogenesis, the growth of new blood vessels commonly seen in cancers.

The drug, itraconazole, is FDA approved for human use, which may fast-track its availability as an anti-cancer drug.

“We were surprised, to say the least, that itraconazole popped up as a potential blocker of angiogenesis,” said Jun Liu, professor of pharmacology at Johns Hopkins, in a statement. “We couldn’t have predicted that an antifungal drug would have such a role.”

Liu’s team exposed cells from human umbilical cords to 2,400 existing drugs — including FDA- and foreign-approved drugs, as well as nonapproved drugs that had passed safety trials — to see which ones could stop the cells from dividing.

The researchers have yet to determine exactly how itraconazole works to stop vessel growth or test it in animals with cancer.