Message From the Chief:
Dear colleagues, physicians, alumni and friends,
I am excited to update you on the continuing success and
important findings generated by our GI Cancers Program (GICP). Director, Dr. Richard Benya, Dr. Robert Carroll and Dr. Xavier Llor compromise the dynamic group. The GICP comprises faculty from the departments of Biochemistry, OB/GYN Pathology, Pharmacognosy, Physiology, Surgery, the Schools of Nursing and Public Health, and of course, Gastroenterology. A major activity of the GICP related to the prevention of colorectal cancer (CRC).
Depressingly, the percentage of Americans dying from solid tumors, including CRC, is about the same as in 1950. Thus, one of the objectives of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) has been to focus on cancer chemoprevention. Basically, this means giving healthy patients drugs in the hopes of preventing cancer development. UIC's GICP is at the forefront of CRC chemoprevention studies, using aberrant crypt foci (ACF) as biomaker for studying drug efficacy.
The GICP is the first to show that some-but not all- ACF types associate with the presence of distal adenomas, and by extension, CRC (Cancer Epidemilogy, Biomarkers and Prevention 2008). Because of this group's expertise, they are involved in a number of NCI- funded chemoprevention trials using alterations of ACF number over time to assess drug efficacy. Drugs currently being evaluated include sulindac, raftilose (a fiber supplement), curcumin (part of the spice tumeric) and vitamin D. Trials involve patients undergoing flexible sigmoidoscopy at trial start and end, being on the relevant drug for up to 6 months, and include patient renumeration of $250.
The program has also generated some interesting preliminary data in rats regarding the CRC-protective effect of phytoestrogens. Estrogens are known to decrease CRC in post-menopausal women, but also increase the risk of cardiovascular event and, thus, are not routinely recommended. Members of the GICP have just completed studies strongly suggesting that naturally occuring phytoestrogens (found in soy beans, for example) also have CRC-protective effects in rodents. Future studies will assess whether this is also true in humans.
Sincerely,
Gail Hecht, MD Professor of Medicine
Chief, Section of Digestive Diseases and Nutrition
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