Study: Ulcer Drug Boosts Survival Rate for Some Colorectal Cancer Patients

Adding cimetidine (Tagamet), a medication used to treat stomach ulcers, to treatment with the chemotherapy drug 5-fluorourcil dramatically improves survival rates in some colorectal cancer patients, according to researchers at Fujita Health University in Nagoya, Japan.

Researchers studied 64 colorectal cancer patients, all having had surgery, to test the effects on survival and cancer recurrence of adding cimetidine to their treatment. They found it was particularly effective with patients whose tumors express certain types of antigens

The patients were divided into two groups; one group was given 800 mg of cimetidine along with 200 mg of 5-fluorouracil per day. The control group was given 5-fluorouracil only. Treatment began 2 weeks after the patients underwent surgery and lasted one year.

The 10-year survival rate for the patients given cimetidine along with 5-fluorourcil was 84.6 percent compared to 49.8 percent for the control group, according to the study published in the British Journal of Cancer.

Researchers have found cimetidine to be particularly effective in patients whose tumors had higher expression levels of sialyl Lewis antigens X and A. The 10-year survival rate of these patients who were given cimetidine together with 5-fluorourcil was 95.5 percent compared to 35.1 percent in similar patients in the control group.

For patients with no or low expression levels of sialyl Lewis antigens X and A, cimetidine did not demonstrate a significant beneficial effect.

"The results clearly indicate that cimetidine treatment dramatically improved survival in colorectal cancer patients with tumor cells expressing high levels of sLx and sLa," concluded the researchers.

Other Sources: British Journal of Cancer