January 12th, 2010
People with a family history of a skin disorder may be able to reduce the risk of developing skin cancer simply by taking the painkiller and prescription drug celecoxib (Celebrex), new research is suggesting. The study is still in preliminary stages and the drug is not yet approved for this specific use, but results look promising.
The skin disorder, called Gorlin syndrome, usually causes a patient to develop hundreds or thousands of cancerous lesions (basal cell carcinomas). Researchers chose to study this particular form of skin cancer because their goal was to find an element in these high-risk patients that could be transferable to the “normal” population. This could then allow for a form of chemoprevention that could decrease the rate of skin cancers in every person.
Researchers studied patients with basal cell carcinoma who took 200mgs of Canadian prescription drug Celebrex twice a day. Dr. Ervin H. Epstein Jr., senior scientist at the Children’s Hospital of Oakland Research Institute in California reported that these patients had a significantly lower amount of lesions after two years compared to those who were taking a placebo.
However, Celebrex has been found to increase cardiovascular side effects and more research is needed in order to prove its safety.
These findings can be found in the January issue of Cancer Prevention Research. For more of the latest prescription drug and medical research news, visit www.orderonlinedrugs.com
