Colon Cancer a Disease of Hormone Deficiency, Thomas Jefferson University Team Finds

(PHILADELPHIA) Researchers at the Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson in Philadelphia have found new evidence suggesting that colon cancer is actually a disease of missing hormones that could potentially be treated by hormone replacement therapy. Reporting August 1, 2007 in the journal Gastroenterology, clinical pharmacologist Scott Waldman, M.D., Ph.D., professor and chair of pharmacology and experimental therapeutics at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University, and his co-workers showed that GCC – guanylyl cyclase C, a protein receptor on the surface of intestinal epithelial cells for two hormones, guanylin and uroguanylin, can suppress tumor formation. These hormones regulate the growth of intestinal epithelial cells.