Colon Cancer May Cause Hormone Loss

Recent findings published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention has found that human colon cells may become cancerous when they lose their ability to maintain the normal amount of hormone. Researchers found that the hormone guanylin could prevent the development of cancer when replaced in high risk patients.

"If confirmed, we could prevent colon cancer by giving patients hormone replacement therapy with guanylin," said lead study author Scott Waldman, M.D., Ph.D., Chair of the Department of Pharmacology & Experimental Therapeutics and the Samuel MV Hamilton Professor at Thomas Jefferson University, in a news release. "The fact that the vast majority of cancers stop producing this hormone leads us to believe that guanylin may be driving the growth of the tumors."

For the study, researchers examined colon cancer samples from over 250 patients and compared their tissues to nearby colon tissues that weren't cancerous. They noted that guanylin production decreased by 100 to 1,000 times in about 85 percent of colon cancers tested.

They also included staining for the guanylin hormone production via slices of the tissue samples in cancer samples.

"If confirmed, We could prevent colon cancer by giving patients hormone replacement therapy with guanylin."

For future research, they will test whether hormone replacement can prevent colon cancer development and/or growth in mice. However, they are still working on their understanding of just how guanylin functions.