COX-2 inhibitors are a class of drugs that have been shown to have some anti-tumor activity against human prostate cancer, both in the lab and in tests on humans. German researchers wanted to find out if combining COX-2 inhibitors with radiation therapy causes more severe side effects than radiation alone. They conducted a Phase I trial to test this.
(full story…)

In the past few years we have reported on a number of studies indicating that aspirin and other NSAIDs (non steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) may protect men against prostate cancer. For example:

Use of aspirin or other NSAIDs increases survival for men with prostate cancer October 5, 2004.

But one study of NSAIDs and cancer turned out to be fake. In April 2005 Dr. Jon Sudbø reported at the annual meeting of American Association for Cancer Research in Anaheim, CA that NSAIDs prevent some cancers but increase cardiovascular deaths. His paper was published in a leading medical journal. But in January 2006 the entire study was revealed as a fake built from fabricated data.

Now a Canadian team has confirmed that men who take non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs may receive protection against prostate cancer.
(full story…)

2006-02-10 10:16:19 -0400 (Reuters Health)

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Adding arachidonic acid, an omega-6 fatty acid, to culture media causes prostate cancer cells to grow twice as fast as usual, according to a report in the February 1st issue of Cancer Research.

“Investigating the reasons for this rapid growth, we discovered that the omega-6 was turning on a dozen inflammatory genes that are known to be important in cancer,” lead author Dr. Millie Hughes-Fulford, from the San Francisco VA Medical Center, said in a statement.

Further analysis indicated that arachidonic acid was activating these genes through a PI3-kinase pathway known to play a key role in the pathogenesis of cancer.

Adding an NSAID or a PI3-kinase inhibitor to the culture media blocked the arachidonic acid-induced proliferation of prostate cancer cells, the findings indicate.

In light of the current findings, Dr. Hughes-Fulford said she now avoids cooking with corn oil, which is known to be high in omega-6 fatty acids. “I’m not a physician, and do not tell people how to eat, but I can tell you what I do in my own home. I use only canola oil and olive oil.”

Cancer Research, Feb 1, 2006.
Arachidonic Acid Activates Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinase Signaling and Induces Gene Expression in Prostate Cancer
Millie Hughes-Fulford1,2,3, Chai-Fei Li, Jim Boonyaratanakornkit and Sina Sayyah
Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center; Northern California Institute for Research and Education; and University of California, San Francisco, California

News Source: Reuters Health

Follow up to the Oslo fabrication. Dr. Sudbø is not in hiding, but he is “on sick leave” and cannot be reached. His wife and his twin brother, who are both scientists, worked with him on the The Lancet study, according to the Guardian, but were unaware of his fraud.

No way of knowing as yet if any statements about the effect of NSAIDs on oral cancer in his article are true. It’s plain though that Dr. Sudbø assembled no genuine evidence for anything that he claimed in this study. He created a simulated reality, a database of pretend patients.
(full story…)

Last April PSA Rising ran a brief report of a Norwegian study that claimed that “Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) prevent some cancers but . . . the advantage from NSAID protection against oral cancer was wiped out by double the rate of heart attack or stroke.”

This weekend it was evident that this study of the effects of ibuprofen and naproxen on oral cancer was fabricated from A to Z.

Norwegian hospital officials stated last week that the study was faked. Today, according to Reuters, the hospital in Oslo said: “A Norwegian cancer expert made up fictitious patients for an article about treatment of oral cancer published in a leading medical journal. . . .”

“The material was fabricated,” said Trine Lind, spokeswoman of the Norwegian Radium Hospital where Jon Sudbo has worked as a doctor and a researcher. “We are shocked. This is the worst thing that could happen in a research institution like ours.”

The hospital spokeswoman said Sudbo, 44, “invented patients and case histories for a study of oral cancer that was published in the British medical journal the Lancet in October 2005.”

The Lancet is Britain’s leading medical journal.

ANNE MARTE BLINDHEIM in the Norwegian daily Dagbladet reported Friday Frykter norsk lege har jukset før that “250 of his sample of 908 people in the study all shared the same birthday,” Reuters said.

Stein Vaaler [photographed below], strategy director for the Oslo cancer center, said: “A colleague raised questions about the article when it was published,” and (according to reports by Canadian CTV and Associated Press ( Cancer researcher admits to fabricating data) “when the researcher was confronted this week about the data, he acknowledged the fabrication, Vaaler said.”

Norwegian media are calling the situation “a personal tragedy.”

“All of it was fabricated,” Vaaler said. “It was not manipulation of real data — it was just complete fabrication.”
(full story…)

Forbes has a story this month about a Cox-II inhibitor, Celebrex. While mostly used for arthritis pain, this drug is of high interest to cancer patients as a possible tumor inhibitor (for background on the cancer connection see
Cancer Patients … and Celebrex in Anti-Cancer Trials Nov 2004
(full story…)