StaffMD/PhD student Bianca N. Islam and Dr. Darren D. Browning, cancer researcher in the MCG Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, made quite an international media splash this spring with their published study that showed a small, daily dose of Viagra significantly reduces colorectal cancer risk in an animal model predetermined to have this third leading cause of cancer death. The researchers are pursuing clinical trials for patients considered at high risk for reasons like a strong family history or multiple previous polyps, abnormal and often asymptomatic clumps of cells on the lining of the intestines that may become cancer. A Viagra dose similar to the one given babies for pulmonary hypertension cut polyp formation in half in their study published in Cancer Prevention Research.
