Lidocaine—often used as a numbing agent for outpatient medical procedures—activates certain bitter taste receptors through two unique mechanisms that result in cancer cell death, according to researchers. Their findings pave the way for a clinical trial to test the addition of lidocaine to the standard of care therapy for patients with head and neck cancers. The local anesthetic drug has long been suggested to have beneficial effects in cancer patients, but it wasn't known how or why. The team found that lidocaine activates the bitter taste receptor T2R14, which is elevated in various cancer cells. When this receptor is activated,...