Aspirin blunts cancer risk

Recently I attended Harvard University's annual course on the role of the Tumor Microenvironment, Angiogenesis and Metastasis.  Dr Isaiah Fiedler, a renowned physician-scientist in the field discussed  his daily consumption of one baby aspirin per day to ward off CVD and metastasis - the real killer in cancer.  As you contemplate your daily baby aspirin consumption here is more mounting evidence.

Cyclooxygenase-2 Polymorphisms, Aspirin Treatment, and Risk for Colorectal Adenoma Recurrence—Data from a Randomized Clinical Trial

1. Elizabeth L. Barry1,
2. Leah B. Sansbury3,
3. Maria V. Grau1,
4. Iqbal U. Ali4,
5. Shirley Tsang5,
6. David J. Munroe5,
7. Dennis J. Ahnen6,
8. Robert S. Sandler7,
9. Fred Saibil8,
10. Jiang Gui1,
11. Robert S. Bresalier10,
12. Gail E. McKeown-Eyssen9,
13. Carol Burke11 and
14. John A. Baron1,2

+ Author Affiliations

1. Departments of ¹Community and Family Medicine and ²Medicine, Dartmouth Medical School, Lebanon, New Hampshire; Divisions of ³Cancer Control and Population Sciences and ⁴Cancer Prevention, National Cancer Institute, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland; ⁵Laboratory of Molecular Technology, Science Applications International Corporation, Inc., Frederick, Maryland; ⁶Department of Medicine, University of Colorado, Denver, Colorado; ⁷Department of Medicine, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina; ⁸Division of Gastroenterology, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre; ⁹Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada; ¹⁰Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas; and ¹¹Department of Gastroenterology, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio

1. Requests for reprints:
   Elizabeth L. Barry, Department of Community and Family Medicine, Dartmouth Medical School, Suite 300, Evergreen Center, 46 Centerra Parkway, Lebanon, NH 03756. Phone: 603-650-3475; Fax: 603-650-3473. E-mail: Elizabeth.L.Barry@Dartmouth.edu

Abstract

Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) catalyzes the rate-limiting step in the production of prostaglandins, potent mediators of inflammation. Chronic inflammation plays an important role in the development and progression of colorectal cancer. Aspirin inhibits COX-2 activity and lowers the risk for colorectal adenomas and cancer. We investigated whether common genetic variation in COX-2 influenced risk for colorectal adenoma recurrence among 979 participants in the Aspirin/Folate Polyp Prevention Study who were randomly assigned to placebo or aspirin and followed for 3 years for the occurrence of new adenomas. Of these participants, 44.2% developed at least one new adenoma during follow-up. Adjusted relative risks and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were calculated to test the association between genetic variation at six COX-2 single-nucleotide polymorphisms and adenoma occurrence and interaction with aspirin treatment. Two single-nucleotide polymorphisms were significantly associated with increased adenoma recurrence: for rs5277, homozygous carriers of the minor C allele had a 51% increased risk compared with GG homozygotes (relative risk, 1.51; 95% CI, 1.01-2.25), and for rs4648310, heterozygous carriers of the minor G allele had a 37% increased risk compared with AA homozygotes (relative risk, 1.37; 95% CI, 1.05-1.79). (There were no minor allele homozygotes.) In stratified analyses, there was suggestive evidence that rs4648319 modified the effect of aspirin. These results support the hypothesis that COX-2 plays a role in the etiology of colon cancer and may be a target for aspirin chemoprevention and warrant further investigation in other colorectal adenoma and cancer populations.(Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2009;18(10):2726–33)

Commemoration with a touch of botulism

   Environmental Histories is a tribute to the achievements and absurdities found in the histories of medicine and public health.  In 1938, artist Bernard Zakheim, a student of Diego Rivera painted a series of murals in Toland Hall at the Hooper Foundation depicting the history of medicine in California, with financial support from the New Deal's Works Progress Administration.  The particular mural on this website is Zakheim's tribute to California's modern medical achievements at Hooper.

    In the upper right hand corner is the George Williams Hooper foundation for medical research first commemorated on May 14, 1913. There are 5 conical flasks illustrated at its fore, these are utilized for the study of bacterial cultures as the foundation was until 1959 primarily a bacteriological institute.  Just below these is a researcher contemplating the presence of botulism in bottled and canned foods. Botulism rarely occurred in the United States until WWI when there was a boom in commercial and home canning.  However in 1919, California had an outbreak of botulism in canned olives threatening an embargo against the multimillion dollar canning industry.  The human death toll was rising as victims suffered from global muscle paralysis. Karl F Meyer, a bacteriologist trained in Switzerland was hired on as Associate Professor at the Hooper foundation in 1920 and was instrumental in determining conditions to heat sterilize clostridium botulinum spores.
    George Hoyt Whipple was well known for his studies of liver metabolism and the relationship of the liver to blood formation. His work, done in part at the Hooper Foundation, led to award of the Nobel Prize along with George Minot and William P. Murphy in 1934. The three investigators established that a substance in liver would cure pernicious anemia.  Today pernicious anemia is not fatal as Whipple et al discovered that vitamin B12 supplementation reverses this anemia.
     In 1921, Dr. Whipple left the Hooper Foundation to organize the new medical school of the University of Rochester, and his post as director was taken by Karl F. Meyer who held it for thirty-three years. Under his guidance the Hooper Foundation became recognized throughout the world as a pioneer center for research on diseases of animals transmissible to man. These accomplishments are denoted by the ungainly appearance of the emaciated man resting next to the sleeping dog.
    And so through these commemorative activities it is possible once again to review and revitalize these faits accomplis by placing these in context with what we know know about uncontrolled epidemics as now with H1N1 flu, SARS and multiple other human and animal vectors of disease, man is not distinct from the anopheles that readily transmits malaria.  Man is indeed part of a larger biosphere than previously thought.  And here begin a recounting of these histories.

References:
Hublitz, Erika. Beginnings of the George Williams Hooper Foundation of the University of California San Francisco. In AR 91-30, G. W. Hooper Foundation and Department of Epidemiology and International Health, Archives and Special Collections, UCSF Library and Center for Knowledge Management, San Francisco, CA. Meyer, Karl Friedrich. Coping with Catastrophy. Eighth Annual Service Award, The Forty-Niners, Shearton-Blackstone Hotel,