Vitamin A inhibitors 'could prevent gullet cancer'

Blocking the action of vitamin A could help to prevent the development of cancer of the oesophagus (gullet), researchers believe.

A team of Medical Research Council (MRC) scientists hopes that a new cancer treatment could be developed by applying vitamin A inhibitors to cells in the gullet.

The discovery was made after researchers treated gullet tissue with vitamin A, causing it to change from its normally scaly state into a glandular lining, indicative of a condition called Barrett's oesophagus which is a precursor to oesophageal adenocarcinoma.

They then discovered that treatment of the abnormal tissue with vitamin A inhibitors caused it to revert to its previous, scaly state.

Lead researcher Dr Rebecca Fitzgerald said that they were "very excited" about the findings, which could enable them to reverse Barrett's oesophagus and prevent cancer from developing.

"Until now it had been thought the changes to the cells in the oesophageal lining were limited to the top layer of those cells, the epithelium," she revealed.

"This research shows that the change is actually more fundamental. This ties in with recent work in many cancer areas which suggests that we have neglected the cell environment for too long in our thinking about cancer."

According to Dr Julie Sharp, cancer information manager at Cancer Research UK, around one in 100 cases of Barrett's oesophagus develop into cancer.

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