Chemoprevention of colon cancer by minor dietary constituents and their synthetic analogues.

Large bowel cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer deaths in the United States and other Western countries. Based on epidemiologic and mechanistic studies, preclinical studies were designed to evaluate the chemopreventive efficacy of several nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and phytochemicals and their synthetic analogues in colon carcinogenesis. These studies demonstrated that NSAIDs such as piroxicam, ibuprofen, aspirin and sulindac, D,L-alpha-difluoromethylornithine, oltipraz, anethole trithione, and diallyl disulfide inhibited colon adenocarcinomas. These results provide compelling rationale to pursue clinical trials in humans.