Biomedicine.

From Philadelphia, at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research 

Drug combination slows colon cancer

Aspirin and other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs can retard the development of colorectal cancer. The medications appear to promote programmed cell death, a process that works against the runaway cell growth that is the hallmark of tumors. Two recent studies of patients have hinted that combining the drugs with cholesterol-lowering medication might enhance this effect.

A study of rats now confirms that suggestion. Researchers exposed 48 rats to chemicals that cause precancerous growths, then they divided the animals into four equal groups. One group received sulindac, a drug similar to aspirin, and a second got lovastatin, a cholesterol-lowering drug. The third group was given both drugs, and the fourth received no medication.

The sulindac group showed precancerous growth only 85 percent as extensive as in the rats with no medication, the lovastatin group 88 percent as much, and the rats treated with the combination 72 percent as much, says Banke Agarwal of St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center in New York. "The combination was highly potent," he says.

Both lovastatin and anti-inflammatory drugs are already used to guard against heart attacks and strokes. However, many anti-inflammatories can cause ulcers. Agarwal suggests that some of the anti-inflammatory medication might be replaced with cholesterol-reducing drugs. --N.S.

Antioxidants may limit key mutations

People with head and neck cancer who have been taking antioxidant vitamins regularly are less likely to have mutations in the cancer suppressor gene known as p53, a new study finds.

Cancer patients with impaired p53 "appear to have lower survival [rates] and poorer response to chemotherapy," says Bruce Trock of Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, D.C., who presented the findings. Trock and his colleagues examined 135 patients, average age 56, and found that those who had been taking vitamin A, C, or E supplements had only one-fourth the mutation rates in p53 as those patients with no history of using these vitamins. All-purpose multivitamins that have low antioxidant content showed no protection against p53 mutation, says Trock.

Head and neck cancer includes tumors of the mouth, throat, and larynx, which are usually associated with smoking or alcohol use. Four-fifths of the cancer patients had been tobacco smokers. Patients who had smoked less than 30 years and used antioxidant vitamins regularly had p53 mutation rates one-twentieth of that seen in smokers who hadn't taken these supplements. This p53 difference persisted after Trock accounted for confounding factors such as weight and lifestyle.

Trock says that it is premature to recommend popping vitamins to prevent cancer. The study "is a tantalizing bit of evidence that needs to be followed up," he says. --N.S.

Tomato compound fights cancer

Lycopene, the chemical that makes tomatoes red, appears to shrink prostate tumors, researchers report.

An earlier study had suggested that tomato consumption might prevent some cancers. To test the theory, scientists gave lycopene extract to 21 prostate-cancer patients for 3 weeks before surgery. Twelve others didn't receive supplemental lycopene.

After surgery to remove the cancerous prostate glands in these men, the researchers found that the tumors were smaller and the cancer had spread less in the patients getting lycopene, says Omer Kucuk, an oncologist at Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit.

The findings suggest that lycopene may someday "play a role in the treatment [of prostate cancer], either alone or as an adjunct to other types of treatment," Kucuk says. --N.S.