Aspirin, and other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), are known to halt the growth of some cancers, such as colorectal cancer, breast cancer and ovarian cancer, but no one could really explain why. Obviously, as a result it was believed that chronic inflammation might be leading to increased cancer risks. Still, no one could explain how any of this was happening enough to harness the ability to replicate it. Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Columbia University Medical Center researchers have announced the discovery of a novel tumor suppressor gene that works with NSAIDS to stop the growth of cancer cells.
"Current clinical trials are evaluating a range of NSAIDs for a variety of cancers without any clear vision of the best way to use them," states Towia Libermann, PhD, Director of the BIDMC Genomics Center and Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. "The fact that upregulation of this single gene MDA-7/IL-24 -- correlated not only with cell death induction of numerous types of cancer but also among various diverse classes of NSAIDs, makes this discovery particularly exciting."
As a result of this discovery, researchers believe newer targeted cancer therapies can be developed. To read more about the discovery, visit Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Columbia University Medical Center's Study Explains How NSAIDs Halt Cancer Growth.
Some of the previous posts we have on inflammation, cancer and aspirin are:
