When he was a teenager, a British man, David Trusler, lost his father to bowel cancer. Now aged 66, he remembers how difficult this ordeal was to go through. “ I lost my father when I was 17 to bowel cancer. When he was diagnosed in the 1970s, there were no MRIs, no ultrasounds. Most of the advances in cancer treatment we have today didn’t exist back then », he tells Corpsestershire Live.
In 2013, he received the shock diagnosis of prostate cancer. “ I felt like I was in a Hitchcock horror film. “, he remembers. He underwent surgery to remove his prostate. The treatment was effective, and his cancer did not return.
“I’m taking part in this trial for my father”
Concerned about monitoring his health, David Trusler has participated in the colon cancer screening program since 2018. In June 2024, the screening results were abnormal. He says to himself “ oh no, not yet ”, and goes to the colonoscopies, very nervous. The exam revealed two large polyps and small growths in the intestinal wall, but neither were cancerous.
It was at this time that he was invited to join the COLO-PREVENT trial funded by Cancer Research UK. The trial, led by the University of Leicester and the National Institute for Health and Social Care Research (NIHR) Leicester Biomedical Research Centre, is testing several potential colon cancer prevention drugs, including aspirin, metformin and resveratrol.
« When I had prostate cancer, I was really impressed by the level of care I received from the NHS. Fourteen specialists, doctors, nurses, all took care of me! I swore afterwards that I would do everything I could to help people in a similar situation “, says David Trusler. “ I’m taking part in this trial for my father, to give future generations the type of treatments he never had. »
Researchers used purified resveratrol, not red wine
Resveratrol is a natural antioxidant found primarily in red grapes, blueberries, raspberries and peanuts, as well as products made from these grapes, such as wine and juice. Be careful not to mix things up. Drinking red wine does not prevent cancer, as alcohol is a known cause of the disease. The researchers therefore used purified resveratrol and not red wine.
Previous studies have found that purified resveratrol can inhibit the growth of cancer cells in small doses. These results led to the COLO-PREVENT trial to determine whether medications like aspirin and dietary supplements like resveratrol are a viable route to preventing bowel cancer. Over the next few years, the trial will recruit 1,300 patients aged 50 to 73, in England and Wales.
Trial participants will receive treatment: either aspirin or aspirin and metformin in the main trial, or resveratrol or placebo in the secondary study. Those who receive aspirin or aspirin and metformin will take these medications daily for three years, while those who take resveratrol or the dummy tablet will take it for a year.
Then all groups will have colonoscopies to see if the polyps have started growing again and, if so, how big they are compared to those removed at the start of the trial.
Source: www.topsante.com
