News Release

Is short-term Celecoxib intervention a effective method for preventing gastric carcinogenesis?

Peer-Reviewed Publication

World Journal of Gastroenterology

Since the isolation and culture of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) in 1983, this bacterium has become accepted as an important human pathogen for the development of gastritis, peptic ulcer, and gastric cancer. Cyclooxgenase-2 (COX-2) is a prostaglandin-synthesizing enzyme. Elevated expression of COX-2 is observed in a wide variety of human malignancies, including gastric cancer. Long-term high dose COX-2 inhibitors can inhibit gastric carcinogenesis in animal models, but the possible life-threatening cardiovascular adverse events limit its popular application. Therefore, it is important to evaluate the optimal intervention point of COX-2 inhibitors for inhibiting H. pylori-associated gastric carcinogenesis.

A research article to be published on October 21, 2009 in the World Journal of Gastroenterology addresses this question. The research team led by Prof. Wu from the Department of Gastroenterology of Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital used the Mongolian gerbil model to evaluate the optimal intervention point of COX-2 inhibitor treatment for inhibiting H. pylori-associated gastric carcinogenesis. The article also investigates the possible mechanism of chemoprevention and possible side effects of COX-2 inhibitors.

Previous studies used relatively long-term periods of chemoprevention. However, COX-2 inhibitors were not a placebo and had toxic effects. COX-2 inhibitors should not be used too long for chemoprevention of gastric cancer. According to the findings of this study, Celecoxib may have effects including anti-oncogenic effect, inhibition of angiogenesis and metastasis, and it was shown that these effects were obtained by both late and short-term use of Celecobxib. The protective effect of Celecoxib could involve an early oncogenic phase not an early inflammation phase. The short-term use also resulted in less severe inflammation and inhibited the invasion degree of gastric cancer. According to these findings, Celecoxib could be used latterly and short-term for refractory H. pylori infection in a clinical situation; a point which was seldom discussed in previous reports. This is very important for decreasing the possible side effects of COX-2 inhibitors.

The research team suggests that COX-2 inhibitors should be used as chemoprevention for people older than about forty years old. This chemoprevention may play an important role for people who have extensive metaplastic gastritis with the highest risk for the development of gastric cancer, and it is also very important for those patients with refractory H. pylori infections at high risk of gastric cancer.

A gastroenterological expert said that this result provided some new information about personalized therapy for gastric cancer prevention and would prove beneficial for clinical application in the future.

###

Reference: Kuo CH, Hu HM, Tsai PY, Wu IC, Yang SF, Chang LL, Wang JY, Jan CM, Wang WM, Wu DC. Short-term Celecoxib intervention is a safe and effective chemopreventive for gastric carcinogenesis based on a Mongolian gerbil model. World J Gastroenterol 2009; 15(39): 4907-4914

http://www.wjgnet.com/1007-9327/15/4907.asp

Correspondence to: Deng-Chyang Wu, MD, PhD, Chief, Department of Gastroenterology, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, 100 Tz-You 1st Road, Kaohsiung City 807, Taiwan, China. dechwu@yahoo.com

Telephone: +886-7-3121101-7451 Fax: +886-7-3135612

About World Journal of Gastroenterology

World Journal of Gastroenterology (WJG), a leading international journal in gastroenterology and hepatology, has established a reputation for publishing first class research on esophageal cancer, gastric cancer, liver cancer, viral hepatitis, colorectal cancer, and H. pylori infection and provides a forum for both clinicians and scientists. WJG has been indexed and abstracted in Current Contents/Clinical Medicine, Science Citation Index Expanded (also known as SciSearch) and Journal Citation Reports/Science Edition, Index Medicus, MEDLINE and PubMed, Chemical Abstracts, EMBASE/Excerpta Medica, Abstracts Journals, Nature Clinical Practice Gastroenterology and Hepatology, CAB Abstracts and Global Health. ISI JCR 2008 IF: 2.081. WJG is a weekly journal published by WJG Press. The publication dates are the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th day of every month. WJG is supported by The National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 30224801 and No. 30424812, and was founded with the name of China National Journal of New Gastroenterology on October 1, 1995, and renamed WJG on January 25, 1998.


Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.