A team of physicians at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center have recently released the results of their new treatment for advanced colon cancer. Critics say that the results are promising but much work is yet to be done. They have developed a treatment regimen for patients who are in the advanced stages of colon cancer or in the final stage. Researchers say that the treatment responds well even after other treatments have failed.

The treatment consists in the combination of two different procedures. One is the classic chemotherapy and the other is a PARP inhibitor. When used separately they do not produce positive results but when used combined they promise consistent results. Although the research is in its early stages researchers are optimists that in the near future this treatment will replace the classic treatments for colon cancer and perhaps help colon cancer patients more than the treatments today can.

The treatment works in two stages, the first one consist in submitting the advanced stage colon cancer patient to chemotherapy which damages the cancer cells. Normally, the PARP, which is the DNA's repair system, would come into action and repair the cancer cells, leaving the chemotherapy useless. The PARP is responsible for offering protection to our cells against DNA damage such as radiation. The success of this treatment lies in the second stage of the treatment. The patient is administrated PARP inhibitors which will prevent the PARP to repair the damaged cancer cells after chemotherapy. This treatment is now being tested on other forms of cancer due to its promising results in breast and ovarian cancer.

The clinical tests were conducted over a group of 49 patients with metastatic cancer who weren't eligible for surgery due to various complications. All members of the group lead normal lives and were working in normal conditions as well as having a normal lifes at home despite the illness. The clinical study revealed that the chemotherapy combined with the PARP inhibitor controlled the growth rate of the cancer for approximately 6 months in almost a quarter of the patients.... More.