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Painkiller Boosts Certain Pancreas Cancers in Mice

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A selective COX-2 inhibitor — a type of drug familiar to arthritis suffers — enhances the growth of COX-2-negative pancreatic tumors in mice. In COX-2-positive tumors, the opposite is true.

“We have shown for the first time in vivo that a selective COX-2 inhibitor can stimulate tumor growth,” Dr. Guido E. Eibl told Reuters Health. “Our studies probably define a subset of patients who should not take COX-2 inhibitors,” he added. Eibl, a researcher in the Hirshberg Pancreatic Cancer Laboratory at the UCLA School of Medicine in Los Angeles, described the findings during the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research. In the study, COX-2-negative and COX-2-positive human pancreatic tumor cells were injected into the flank and pancreas of mice; this was followed by injection of nimesulide, a COX-2 inhibitor used widely outside the U.S. to treat arthritis. In mice with pancreatic cancer expressing COX-2, nimesulide decreased tumor growth. But “surprisingly,” Eibl said, in those with COX-2-negative tumors, there was a significant increase in tumor growth. Up to 40 percent of all human pancreatic cancers are COX-2 negative. According to Eibl, three other COX-2 inhibitors gave similar results in test tube experiments. When considering treating people who have pancreatic cancer with a COX-2 inhibitor, Eibl said, “probably the COX-2 expression profile of the pancreatic tumor should be determined.” (Source: Reuters Health: Megan Rauscher: MedLine Plus: April 2004)


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Posted On: 1 April, 2004
Modified On: 3 December, 2013

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