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British
researchers have called for new research into the effects
of human growth hormone therapy after discovering a higher
incidence of colorectal cancer in patients treated with human
pituitary growth hormone between 1959 and 1985.
The researchers
from Britain's Institute of Cancer Research said that in a
study of 1,848 people who received the therapy as children
or young adults, those treated with human pituitary growth
hormone were 11 time more likely than normal to be killed
by colorectal cancer or by Hodgkin's disease.
"It
raises the possibility that growth hormone treatment might
be associated with a raised risk of colorectal cancer in particular,"
said epidemiologist Anthony Swerdlow
The researchers
noted that there are differences between the human growth
hormone treatment given during the study period and the synthetic
human growth hormone used today, and also differences in the
frequency with which it is administered.
"There
is no evidence on whether growth hormone in modern dosage
regimens is associated with colorectal-cancer risk,"
Swerdlow said.
But he
said there was "no reason to believe that there would
be an intrinsic difference in carcinogenicity between human
pituitary and synthetic growth hormone," and called for
a new larger study of the potential linkage of the therapy
to colorectal cancer.
"In
view of the large relative risk and supporting evidence, there
is an urgent need to gain further data," Swerdlow said.
Source:
Colorectal
Cancer Week of July 28, 2002
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