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NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Eradicating an ulcer-causing bacteria with antibiotics can stop or even reverse the growth of precancerous stomach lesions, according to the results of a new study. The study found that taking vitamin supplements--either vitamin C or beta-carotene--may stop the stomach lesions in their tracks as well. Infection with Helicobacter pylori bacteria has been linked to ulcers and stomach cancer, but whether treating the infection prevents cancer is controversial, explained the study's lead author, Dr. Pelayo Correa, of the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans. The current study, which was carried out in a region in Colombia with a high rate of stomach cancer, may help settle the issue, he said. Over the course of the 6-year study, precancerous stomach lesions were about three to five times more likely to regress in people who received a 2-week course of drugs designed to eliminate H. pylori compared with participants who received a placebo that did not contain any medication. "If you cure the infection, then there is a significant reduction in the progression of the cancer process," Correa said. "It is feasible to reduce the risk." But vitamins worked just as well at slowing down the progression of precancerous lesions, the authors report in the December 6th issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. People who received daily supplements of beta-carotene or vitamin C throughout the study were about three to five times more likely to have their lesions regress than individuals taking the placebo. But even though drug therapy, beta-carotene and vitamin C were effective when taken individually, when one or more of the treatments were given in combination, the benefits were not any greater, Correa noted. "Putting them together doesn't add up," he said. The findings of the study are "encouraging," according to Dr. William J. Blot, of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. But the results should be interpreted with caution, since the percentage of lesions that regressed in participants who were taking the placebo was fairly low, he notes in an editorial that accompanies the study. Most of the benefits of the medications and the vitamins depend on this low rate, Blot adds. The study included 852 patients, 97% of whom were infected with H. pylori. The participants were randomly assigned to receive a daily supplement of beta-carotene, vitamin C or both, or to receive a placebo. Half of all participants, including some from each group, received a 2-week course of drug therapy designed to eliminate H. pylori infection. SOURCE: Journal of the National Cancer Institute 2000;92:1868-1869, 1881- |
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Last modified: March 30, 2007 |
