Drug Combination May Kill Precancerous Colon Polyps

As National Colon Cancer Awareness Month (March 2010) just wrapped up, news came from researchers at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center that a powerful drug combination may kill polyps that lead to colon cancer.

The regimen of drugs, Vitamin A acetate (RAc) and TRAIL (tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand), has only been tested so far on mice and colon cancer tissues in a laboratory, but scientists are finding that the drug combination not only kills precancerous polyps, it also does no harm to normal colon epithelial cells. The drugs, if used separately, showed having no effect on premalignant polyps, also known as adenomas.

In mice, the treatment showed a 69 percent reduction of precancerous polyps in only two weeks. In human tissues, researchers saw a 57 percent reduction.

The team of researchers will continue its testing before any human clincal trials can be considered.

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