NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Enemas that contain a substance known as epidermal growth factor, or EGF, seem to reduce the severity of inflammatory diseases of the colon or rectum.
EGF stimulates healing processes, Dr. Jeremy Nightingale, of Leicester Royal Infirmary, UK, and colleagues note in latest issue of The New England Journal of Medicine. In their study, they enrolled 24 patients with mild-to-moderate ulcerative colitis or proctitis whose worsening symptoms required additional therapy.
The patients were given enema solutions containing EGF or an inactive placebo, which they self-administered and retained as long as possible. Treatment was daily, for 14 days.
In the EGF group, disease severity scores declined from 10 to 2 after four weeks. The placebo group's scores declined from 9 to 6.5.
In fact, 10 patients treated with EGF achieved disease remission -- that is, a score of 4 or less -- compared with only one patient given placebo.
However, in an accompanying editorial, Dr. Richard J. Farrell, of Harvard Medical School in Boston, sounds a note of caution: EGF may be a cancer-causing substance, especially at the concentrations used in this study.
SOURCE: New England Journal of Medicine, July 24, 2003.