Aspirin May Be Newest Cancer Drug
Aspirin May Be Newest Cancer Drug
'Provocative' Study Shows New Way Old Drug Cuts Tumor Growth
Oct. 2, 2006 -- You may already know the name of the next new thing in cancer prevention: aspirin.
No, it's not time to start gobbling the little white pills. Aspirin, that mainstay of Mom's medicine cabinet, causes severe stomach bleeding in many unsuspecting users. Today, aspirin is recognized as a particularly powerful drug.
Perhaps more powerful than anyone thought, suggest Helen M. Arthur, PhD, and colleagues at the University of Newcastle in England.
In test-tube studies, the researchers find that aspirin does what some of the most cutting-edge new anticancer drugs do. It seems to keep newborn cancers from growing the blood vessels they need to become full-blown tumors -- a process called angiogenesis.
"Aspirin, if we can get it into the body safely, can inhibit angiogenesis," Arthur tells WebMD. "We need to find the molecules responsible for this effect, and then find even better drugs. But for the moment, aspirin is pretty hot."
Arthur and colleagues report their findings in The FASEB Journal.
Many studies have found that people who regularly take aspirin -- though they do have more stomach ulcersulcers -- also get cancer less often. Why?
Like other drugs classified as NSAIDs (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs), aspirin blocks important enzymes called Cox-1 and Cox-2. It's been thought that this was behind aspirin's suspected anticancer effect.
Now Arthur's team has made the startling finding that aspirin's anticancer effect may not be due to blocking Cox enzymes at all.
The researchers cultured human blood vessel cells in a test tube. The cells grew in a three-dimensional matrix that allowed them to begin to form new blood vessels. When exposed to aspirin -- the same concentration seen in the blood after a person takes two regular-strength aspirin -- the cells looked perfectly healthy. But they did not form new blood vessels.
Like most scientists, Arthur and colleagues suspected this effect was due to blocking Cox enzymes. So they exposed the cells to Celebrex. Celebrex only blocks Cox-2, the form of Cox suspected of promoting cancer. But Celebrex didn't keep new blood vessels from forming. Neither did another, experimental Cox-2 inhibitor -- nor did the two in combination.
Aspirin May Be Newest Cancer Drug
'Provocative' Study Shows New Way Old Drug Cuts Tumor Growth
Oct. 2, 2006 -- You may already know the name of the next new thing in cancer prevention: aspirin.
No, it's not time to start gobbling the little white pills. Aspirin, that mainstay of Mom's medicine cabinet, causes severe stomach bleeding in many unsuspecting users. Today, aspirin is recognized as a particularly powerful drug.
Perhaps more powerful than anyone thought, suggest Helen M. Arthur, PhD, and colleagues at the University of Newcastle in England.
In test-tube studies, the researchers find that aspirin does what some of the most cutting-edge new anticancer drugs do. It seems to keep newborn cancers from growing the blood vessels they need to become full-blown tumors -- a process called angiogenesis.
"Aspirin, if we can get it into the body safely, can inhibit angiogenesis," Arthur tells WebMD. "We need to find the molecules responsible for this effect, and then find even better drugs. But for the moment, aspirin is pretty hot."
Arthur and colleagues report their findings in The FASEB Journal.
Aspirin's Unexpected Effect
Many studies have found that people who regularly take aspirin -- though they do have more stomach ulcersulcers -- also get cancer less often. Why?
Like other drugs classified as NSAIDs (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs), aspirin blocks important enzymes called Cox-1 and Cox-2. It's been thought that this was behind aspirin's suspected anticancer effect.
Now Arthur's team has made the startling finding that aspirin's anticancer effect may not be due to blocking Cox enzymes at all.
The researchers cultured human blood vessel cells in a test tube. The cells grew in a three-dimensional matrix that allowed them to begin to form new blood vessels. When exposed to aspirin -- the same concentration seen in the blood after a person takes two regular-strength aspirin -- the cells looked perfectly healthy. But they did not form new blood vessels.
Like most scientists, Arthur and colleagues suspected this effect was due to blocking Cox enzymes. So they exposed the cells to Celebrex. Celebrex only blocks Cox-2, the form of Cox suspected of promoting cancer. But Celebrex didn't keep new blood vessels from forming. Neither did another, experimental Cox-2 inhibitor -- nor did the two in combination.
