Study: 5-ASA Not Useful in Colon Cancer Prevention

BETHESDA, Md. — Study findings recently published in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology failed to show that the use of 5-aminosalicylic acid (5-ASA) demonstrated definitive chemopreventative activity in patients with longstanding ulcerative colitis (UC). Those with flat low-grade dysplasia (fLGD) also have a higher rate of progression to advanced neoplasia than those with no dysplasia (NoD) or indefinite dysplasia (IND), the study said.

“Some studies have suggested that 5-ASA can prevent the development of colorectal cancer (CRC) in UC patients, although none have determined where in the colitis-dysplasia-carcinoma sequence these agents might act,” said Thomas A. Ullman, MD, of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and lead author of the study. “This study not only enabled doctors to address where in this process compounds might exert a chemopreventive effect, but it also allowed them to account for changes in 5-ASA exposure over time, an underappreciated concept in chemopreventive literature.”