Pancreatic Cancer Study/Antioxidants

[Guest guest]

Since this subject has been introduced, I've pasted a press

release about a study done in 1998 to test the effectiveness of

using antioxidants to help prevent pancreatic cancer. Now all I

have to find out about are the results of this study. It was to be a

four year study and that means it ended this year. I will post the

information if it's available.

Cancer Press Releases

Hutchinson Center to lead $8 million study

of colorectal and pancreatic cancers

HUTCHINSON CENTER TO LEAD $8 MILLION STUDY OF

COLORECTAL AND PANCREATIC CANCERS

The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle has

been selected to lead an $8 million, four-year investigation into

the causes, prevention and early detection of colorectal and

pancreatic cancers. The grant announcement was made earlier

this afternoon during a special White House event hosted by first

lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, at which she underscored her

support for the prevention and early detection of colorectal

cancer.

The Seattle Gastrointestinal Program Project, funded by the

National Cancer Institute, will support three studies involving

more than two dozen investigators at the Hutchinson Center, the

University of Washington, Group Health ative, Veterans

Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System and Virginia Mason

Medical Center.

The researchers will study people with pancreatitis and chronic

ulcerative colitis – inflammatory diseases that are a major risk

factor for the development of pancreatic and colorectal cancers,

respectively. Patient recruitment, which will involve nearly 1,000

Seattle-area residents, will begin by the end of the year.

" People with these inflammatory disorders face up to 20 times

the risk of going on to develop cancer, " says principal

investigator D. Potter, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Cancer

Prevention Research Program in the Hutchinson Center's

Division of Public Health Sciences. " One of the reasons we have

chosen to study these two cancers is because they are major

public health problems; colorectal cancer because of its very

high incidence and its relative preventibility, pancreas cancer

because of its very high death rate, " says Potter, also a professor

of epidemiology at the UW.

Indeed, some 150,000 new cases of colorectal cancer are

diagnosed annually in the United States, where it is the third

most common type of cancer in men and women. Pancreatic

cancer, while less common, is almost uniformly fatal; the

survival rate is about 5 percent, and most people die within four

months of diagnosis.

Understanding what causes the progression of these

inflammatory diseases to malignancy will be critical to designing

effective strategies to prevent or delay the onset of these

cancers. This knowledge also could lead to the development of

screening tests for pancreatic cancer (currently there are none)

and more sensitive, less invasive early detection methods for

colon cancer than those currently available, such as fecal-occult

blood testing and endoscopy.

Researchers know that colorectal and pancreatic cancers, like

all malignancies, are genetic diseases that arise when key

regulatory genes in a cell become damaged and either stop

working or functioning correctly. When these genes malfunction,

a cell can gain the ability to act independently, dividing on its own

unregulated schedule and putting a person at risk for cancer.

Though scientists already have discovered a great deal about

how some of these key genes work, they still know very little

about what actually causes the damage.

The working hypothesis behind the Seattle GI Program Project is

that cancer growth is triggered by oxidative damage to our

genetic code, or DNA. This occurs when a highly reactive

byproduct of the oxygen we breathe – free-radical molecules –

gradually damage, or mutate, our DNA. One theory is that cancer

arises when our damaged cells either fail to repair themselves

or fail to self-destruct – a process called apoptosis, which

normally is the fate of damaged cells.

" Some leaders in the field call these damaged cells `the living

dead,' because they go on reproducing even though, under

normal circumstances, they wouldn't, " Potter says. " A lot of us

think that these are the key players in the development of cancer.

One of our hopes for this study is to find clear evidence that this

is what's really going on. "

Below are brief descriptions of the three studies being

undertaken by the consortium, all of which seek to apply the

insights of laboratory research to prevent, detect and better

understand the causes of pancreatic and colorectal cancer in

humans:

* Project 1: This study is looking into the role of oxidative damage

in the progression of pancreatitis to pancreatic cancer. Tissue

studied will be taken during endoscopic examination of the

pancreatic ducts – a routine part of diagnosis for pancreatitis.

This study also will gauge the effectiveness of antioxidants in

treating pancreatitis and preventing its escalation toward

malignancy. About 150 pancreatitis patients will be recruited for

this study, the majority from Group Health ative. Leader:

H. Bell Jr., M.D., professor and vice chairman of the UW

Department of Surgery and service line leader in Surgical and

Perioperative Care, VA Puget Sound Health Care System.

Co-leaders: Brentnall, M.D., acting assistant professor

of medicine in the UW Division of Gastroenterology; and

Lawrence Loeb, M.D., Ph.D., professor of pathology and of

biochemistry at UW.

* Project 2: This study is very similar in concept and design to

Project 1, except the focus will be on the role of oxidative damage

in chronic ulcerative colitis and its progression to colorectal

cancer. The effectiveness of a chemopreventive approach (using

complex mixtures of food-derived antioxidants) in preventing or

reversing disease progression also will be studied. About 30

ulcerative colitis patients from the University of Washington will

be recruited for this study. Leader: Brentnall, M.D., (also

co-leader of Project 1, above). Co-leaders: Bronner, M.D.,

assistant professor and director of the DNA Probe Laboratory in

the UW Department of Pathology; and UW pathology professor

Rabinovitch, M.D., Ph.D.

* Project 3: The goal of this study is to develop a low-cost,

minimally invasive and sensitive screening tool for colon cancer.

This study will attempt to measure some of the early pathologic

changes in the lining of the colon and rectum to try and

discriminate those at high and low risk of colorectal cancer. Tiny

snippets of tissue taken during colonoscopy will be tested for

evidence of oxidative damage – biomarkers that may be

associated with greater cancer risk such as changes in cell

death and cell division. Specifically, researchers hope to

determine whether a rectal biopsy could be used to screen for

malignancies throughout the entire colon, based on the

presence of certain biomarkers in the rectal tissue. If so, rectal

biopsy (less costly and invasive than colonoscopy) may one day

be used as a front-line screening tool for colon cancer.

Approximately 800 colonoscopy patients will be recruited for this

study, most from Group Health. Leader: Potter, M.D., Ph.D.,

(also principal investigator of the Program Project). Co-leader:

Polly A. Newcomb, Ph.D., member in the Hutchinson Center's

Cancer Prevention Research Program, Division of Public Health

Sciences.

Potter credits colleague Hockenbery, M.D., an assistant

member in the Hutchinson Center's divisions of Clinical

Research and Molecular Medicine and an associate professor of

immunology and of medicine at UW, for being a catalyst in the

formation of the group. " He was key in linking the clinical

researchers with the basic scientists, and he'll act as a

consultant on the project, " he says.

The Hutchinson Center is one of 35 National Cancer

Institute-designated comprehensive cancer centers and ranks

first in the nation in total federal funding for cancer research. In

fiscal year 1997, The Hutch received more than $54 million in

research grants from the NCI. pancreatic cancer

With hope and prayers,

Heidi

Heidi H. Griffeth

South Carolina

hhessgriffeth@...

Southeastern Representative

Pancreatitis Association, Intl.