Painkillers may not cut smokers' colon cancer risk

Last Updated: 2006-07-06 16:25:03 -0400 (Reuters Health)

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Aspirin and similar painkillers have been shown to reduce colon cancer risk, but new research suggests the benefits may not extend to longtime smokers.

In a study of nearly 3,300 adults, researchers found that smokers had a higher than average risk of colon cancer, even if they regularly used non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), a class of common over-the-counter pain relievers that includes aspirin, ibuprofen and naproxen.

A number of studies have found a lower risk of colon cancer among people who regularly use NSAIDs, such those who take daily aspirin to help prevent heart attacks. NSAIDs inhibit the body's synthesis of prostaglandins, hormone-like substances that may help stimulate the growth and spread of colon cancer cells.

But the new findings, published in the journal Cancer Research, suggest that the benefits of NSAIDs may not be enough to counteract the damage from years of smoking.

"Given the damage that smokers receive over their lifetime, even strong anti-progression agents, like NSAIDs, may be ineffective," write the study authors, led by Victoria Chia of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.

The study included 1,792 adults with colon cancer and 1,501 without the disease. Overall, Chia's team found that current NSAIDs users had a 30-percent lower risk of the cancer than nonusers.

Smokers who used NSAIDs, however, still had an elevated risk of colon cancer. Current smokers who were using the painkillers were 70 percent more likely to be diagnosed with colon cancer than NSAID users who never smoked.

The greatest risk was found among people who'd never regularly used NSAIDs and had smoked for more than 40 years; they were nearly three times more likely to develop colon cancer than non-smokers who used NSAIDs.

In particular, smokers were at risk of a type of colon cancer marked by microsatellite instability, which means the tumor cells show defects in the cells that normally repair the genetic damage that can lead to cancer.

Longtime smokers were at risk of these colon tumors regardless of their NSAID use.

Researchers are currently studying whether aspirin and other NSAIDs can help prevent colon cancer in people with a higher-than-average risk of the disease. Because prolonged NSAID use can cause side effects, such as serious gastrointestinal bleeding, experts advise people against taking the drugs on their own for the sake of colon cancer prevention.

SOURCE: Cancer Research, July 1, 2006.

Copyright © 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.

Early drinking may speed alcohol dependence

Last Updated: 2006-07-06 16:49:03 -0400 (Reuters Health)

By Anne Harding

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People who begin to drink alcohol before the age of 14 years are not only more likely to become alcohol dependent than those who stay away from alcohol until they're 21; they also develop dependency faster and have a longer struggle with alcohol throughout their lives, a new study shows.

"It's not to say that people don't get over this, but...they're at greater lifelong risk, particularly if they develop dependence so rapidly that they have it this early in life," the study's lead author, Dr. Ralph W. Hingson of Boston University School of Public Health's Youth Alcohol Prevention Center, told Reuters Health.

There is mounting evidence that people who start drinking early are more likely to become alcohol dependent, Hingson and his team note in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. To investigate whether they may also become alcohol dependent at a younger age, the researchers analyzed the results of a 2001-2002 survey of 43,093 adults conducted by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

The researchers found that 47 percent of people who started drinking before age 14 met the diagnostic criteria for alcohol dependence within 10 years, compared to 4 percent of those who started drinking at age 21. Twenty-seven percent of the men and women who started drinking before age 14 were alcohol dependent before the age of 25, compared with 4 percent of those who began drinking at 21.

Using statistical techniques, the researchers factored in the influence of other factors that could be related to early drinking and the development of alcohol dependence, such as antisocial behavior during childhood, a family history of alcoholism, depression and education level.

Even after controlling for such factors, people who started drinking early were 2.6 times more likely to have episodes of alcohol dependence lasting longer than one year and nearly three times as likely to have six to seven symptoms of alcohol dependence versus three to five symptoms.

The findings underscore the dangers of early alcohol use, Hingson and his team note, and raise the possibility that efforts to help prevent drinking among teens, such as raising the drinking age to 21, could reduce the rates of alcohol dependence.

"We think it's very important that adolescents routinely be asked about their drinking practices by their health care providers," Hingson told Reuters Health. "There are interventions that we know can make a difference."

SOURCE: Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, July 2006.

Copyright © 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.