Vitamin A shows anticancer promise

A vitamin A-related compound has shown promise as a lung cancer preventative with few side-effects, according to research from Washington University School of Medicine in the US.

Bexarotene was shown to prevent or slow tumour growth in mice prone to lung cancer without causing severe skin irritations common with other vitamin A derivatives in cancer therapies.

The combined size of tumours among mice given bexarotene for 12 weeks, after developing benign tumours from an injection of a lung carcinogen, shrank by around 50%. Also, around half as many of these tumours became malignant as would have been expected.