Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0699790 (colon cancer)
 28,837 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Evidence for positive health benefits of Lactobacilli applies to only a few strains used for commercial applications. It is generally agreed that a probiotic must be capable of colonizing the intestinal tract to influence human health; this requirement disqualifies many of the strains currently used in fermented dairy products. Lactobacillus GG, a variant of L. casei sps rhamnosus, has been studied extensively in adults and children. When consumed as a dairy product or as a lyophilized powder, LGG colonizes the gastrointestinal tract for 1-3 days in most individuals and up to 7 days in about 30% of subjects. Traveler's diarrhea, antibiotic-associated diarrhea, and relapsing Clostridium difficile colitis are improved with LGG. In infantile diarrhea, the severity and duration of the attack is reduced. LGG-fermented milk lessens the intestinal permeability defects caused by exposure to cows milk or rotavirus infection. LGG has proven beneficial effects on intestinal immunity. It increases the numbers of IgA and other immunoglobulin-secreting cells in the intestinal mucosa. LGG stimulates local release of interferon. It facilitates antigen transport to underlying lymphoid cells, which serves to increase antigen uptake in Peyer's patches. LGG also acts as an immunoadjuvant for oral vaccines. In an animal model of colon cancer, LGG reduced the incidence of chemically induced tumors in the large bowel of rodents. Extensive safety testing has shown no pathogenic potential in humans or animals. Probiotic cultures of Lactobacilli have the potential to bring substantial health benefits to the consumer. The purported benefits for any probiotic must pass the highest standards of scientific scrutiny before the claims can be accepted.
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PMID:Probiotics and gastrointestinal health. 1063 18

Probiotics are defined as live microorganisms of human origin. Their use may favorably influence human health and ameliorate or prevent certain diseases. Prebiotics are non-digestible foodstuffs (fiber, oligofructans - "colonic foods"), which enter the colon and are metabolized by the probiotics. Probiotics should fulfill the following criteria: Phenotypic and genotypic classification, no pathogenic properties, human origin, application in the living state, resistance to gastric acid and bile, ability to adhere to colonocytes, ability to colonize the gut, clinically proved favorable health-effect, and safety. Experimental and clinical studies supplied evidence of the possible use of probiotics in the following diseases: Traveler's diarrhea, antibiotic-associated diarrhea, relapsing Clostridium difficile colitis, infantile diarrhea, rotavirus enteritis, inflammatory bowel disease, irritable bowel syndrome, colon cancer, peritonitis, acute pancreatitis, and diarrhea associated with HIV infection. Probiotics displayed the following effects in these studies: Involvement in production of essential nutrients of the colonic mucosa, beneficial effect on intestinal immunity, recovery of the disturbed gut mucosal barrier and prevention of microbial translocation, elimination of toxins and eradication of microbial pathogens, production of steroids from cholesterol and reduction of its pool in circulation, participation in regulation of intestinal functions, reduced incidence of chemically induced colon tumors in rodents. Probiotics open new therapeutic modalities in a number of diseases and it may be expected that their importance will increase with growing knowledge and experience.
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PMID:[Probiotics in gastroenterology]. 1190 55

A 77-year-old man underwent surgery for sigmoid colon cancer. He was diagnosed with Stage IIIa colon cancer; there- fore, we initiated oral administration of adjuvant chemotherapy comprising uracil/tegafur(UFT)plus Leucovorin(LV). However, chemotherapy was stopped after 21 days because of fatigue and diarrhea. He recovered after 3 weeks, and we administered the same regimen with a dose reduction. However, he again experienced fatigue and diarrhea after 20 days; therefore, chemotherapy was discontinued. Subsequently, he was hospitalized 8 times for conditions such as diarrhea, hypoalbuminemia, and fever. Computed tomography revealed thickening of the transverse colonic wall and colonoscopy revealed colitis, which we believe was induced by UFT plus LV. Twelve months after the last chemotherapy session, he was diagnosed with Clostridium difficile colitis. Therefore, we initiated the oral administration of vancomycin, which resulted in rapid recovery from colitis. However, he developed liver metastasis and died 29 months after the initiation of chemotherapy. We believe that this severe case of intractable colitis was caused by UFT plus LV. Therefore, we report this case with a review of the literature on enteritis induced by fluorouracil-based anticancer agents in Japan.
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PMID:[A case of severe enteritis induced by adjuvant chemotherapy for colon cancer]. 2474 69