Drug to Block Colon Cancer Shows Promise, UCI Reports

UC Irvine researchers announced Tuesday that they have experienced promising success with a drug that may help prevent colon cancer.

During a one-year study that monitored 118 patients, researchers found that low doses of the drug DFMO halted the metabolic activity that cancerous cells need to grow in the human colon, said Westley Lagerberg, a clinical trial coordinator of the UCI Chao Family Cancer Comprehensive Center.

The findings of the research team will be published today in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

The drug is not effective once cancer has developed. The patients who participated in the study had never been diagnosed with colon cancer, but they were at risk, having undergone surgery to remove benign, abnormal growths known as polyps from their colons.

Researchers from the University of Arizona in Tucson and the University of Washington in Seattle participated in the study, in which patients were given either varying daily doses of DFMO or a placebo.

The drug slowed the production of molecules called polyamines. At normal levels, these molecules work to control cell growth, Lagerberg said, but if too many polyamines are produced in an organ they can cause abnormally rapid tissue growth. These polyps can transform easily into cancerous tumors.

In the tests, DFMO inhibited an enzyme that spurs the production of polyamines, she said.

Researchers started looking at the potential of DFMO about 10 years ago, Lagerberg said.

In a new five-year study, researchers will see whether DFMO is more effective when combined with another anti-cancer drug, Sulindac. Patients will participate through UCI, the Long Beach Veterans Administration Medical Center, the Loma Linda Veterans Administration, the Long Beach Gastroenterology Assn. and the University of Arizona.

Volunteers must be 40 to 80 years old and have a history of colon polyps.

Information: (714) 456-6485.