US Pharm. 2010;35(1)(Oncology suppl):13.
According to a study published in the Journal of Natural Products, Swedish researchers have found that cardiac glycosides show promise for fighting colon cancer. This group of naturally derived drugs is used to treat congestive heart failure and cardiac arrhythmias. The scientists tested five glycosides (convallatoxin, digitoxin A, digoxin, oleandrin, proscillaridin) against laboratory cultures of human colon cancer cells and found that the drugs were all effective, to varying degrees, at destroying cancerous cells. Several of the agents also showed increased anticancer activity when combined with conventional chemotherapy drugs (i.e., 5-fluorouracil, cisplatin, irinotecan, oxaliplatin).
The findings suggest that glycosides may affect colon cancer outcomes when used alone or in combination with certain chemotherapeutic agents. Colon cancer is the third most common cancer in the U.S., with more than 150,000 cases diagnosed each year.
