Ok, philosophers, here's a bit of news re AGPH, remember them?
"NEW YORK (AP) - Vitamin E made a standard cancer drug far more powerful than usual against colon cancer in mice, and another substance let the drug wipe tumors out entirely, scientists report.
It's too soon to recommend taking vitamin E during treatment, because studies haven't been done in people yet to see if it really helps, said researcher Dr. Robert J. Coffey.
Coffey, a professor of medicine and cell biology at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, presents the work with colleagues in the November issue of the journal Nature Medicine.
They transplanted human colon cancer cells into mice and began treatment after tumors developed. Treatment included the standard drug five-fluorouracil, called 5FU, plus either vitamin E or a substance called PDTC. Like vitamin E, PDTC is an antioxidant, which means it destroys harmful forms of oxygen in the body.
By itself, 5FU made tumors grow more slowly than usual. When given with vitamin E, it made the tumors actually shrink and stay small over the six weeks of the study. When 5FU was combined with PDTC, the tumors disappeared. They haven't returned since treatment stopped, a period of up to two months, Coffey said.
Researchers are now studying whether vitamin E will work better than it did if given in higher doses.
Test-tube studies indicated that vitamin E and PDTC help the cancer drug by turning on a gene called p21 in cancer cells. That gene helps control cell growth and a process of cell suicide.
AP-NY-10-28-97 1701EST"
As I understand it, five-fluorouracil is a (comparatively toxic) competitor to one of AGPH's main drug candidates. |
