Antidepressants May Fight Colorectal Cancer

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Until carefully controlled studies are done, "treatment of colorectal cancer should not be changed," he said.

Collet said: "The next step should be to study the effects of SSRIs in high-risk populations, such as persons with a family history of colorectal cancer, to see whether in this treatment we can find protection. Also, studies might be done in patients who have cancer, to see whether after surgery, we could reduce the rate of recurrence or metastasis [spread of cancer elsewhere in the body]."

Future studies would have to take into account such factors as diet, use of other drugs and the presence of diseases such as diabetes and inflammatory bowel disease, which can affect the risk of colorectal cancer, the researchers wrote.

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If studies do confirm the cancer-fighting effects of SSRIs, that could boost sales of the already-popular drugs. About 100 million SSRI prescriptions are written each year in the United States, and the number of prescriptions in Canada rose from 3.2 million in 1981 to 14.5 million in 2000, the report said.

More information

The U.S. National Institutes of Health (history.nih.gov ) can tell you more about SSRI antidepressants.

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