Eating Certain Foods Can Interfere With Cancer Drugs

A new university study suggests eating and drinking too much of certain foods – such as red meat, corn and orange juice – may prevent an effective cancer drug cocktail from working.

A combination of the cancer agent DFMO and the arthritis drug sulindac has been found to lower the risk of developing colon polyps, which can lead to colon cancer, according to a WebMD report. However, the same researchers who found the benefits of the drug cocktail now say it may only work in people who limit their intake of polyamines.

Polyamines are chemicals found in food which have been shown to increase the risks of colon cancer. Red meat and other foods which are high in polyamines appear to interfere with the drugs’ ability to fight cancer, the scientists said.

In patients who consumed large amounts of polyamines in their diet, the mix of DFMO and sulindac “clearly had no benefit,” the study found.

Colon cancer is a leading killer of Americans, claiming about 160,000 lives in 2009. About one in 19 people in the United States will contract colon cancer.

Researchers from the University of California, Irvine examined data on about 200 people who participated in their original study of DFMO and sulindac. All of the patients had at least one colorectal polyp, also known as adenomas, removed in the past year.

The study participants were categorized depending on their level of polyamine intake. The study team found people with the highest consumption of polyamines had larger polyps and more advanced polyps with greater odds of going on to cancer compared to people with lower levels of the chemicals.

AUTHOR: tgrenda