Studies Of Phenolphthalein Containing Laxative Use

在国家毒理学计划（NTP）对啮齿动物进行的为期两年的喂养研究中，许多泻药中的一种成分酚酞显示出明确的致癌活性。含有酚酞的泻药已被证明在实验动物中致癌，其剂量仅比人类经常食用的剂量高10倍，最近已进入市场并被广泛使用。大约3%的美国老年人每天使用含酚酞的泻药。我们调查了含酚酞泻药的使用与卵巢癌和人类腺瘤性结直肠息肉的风险的关系。卵巢癌是在NTP动物中观察到的一种特定形式的癌症，但很少有流行病学研究检查卵巢癌风险与泻药使用的关系。因此，我们进行了两项病例对照研究，以评估使用含酚酞泻药与卵巢癌风险的关系。两项研究都没有强有力的证据表明两者之间存在联系。

Phenolphthalein, a constituent in many laxatives, showed clear evidence of carcinogenic activity in 2-year feeding studies in rodents done by the National Toxicology Program (NTP). Phenolphthalein-containing laxatives, which have been shown to be carcinogenic in laboratory animals at doses only 10-fold greater than those frequently consumed by humans, have recently been on the market and widely used. About 3% of the older U.S. population uses phenolphthalein-containing laxatives on a daily basis. We investigated the relation of phenolphthalein-containing laxative use with risk of ovarian cancer and adenomatous colorectal polyps in humans. Ovarian cancer was one of the specific forms of cancer observed in the NTP animal, but few epidemiologic studies have examined ovarian cancer risk in relation to laxative use. Therefore, we conducted two case-control studies to evaluate the relation of phenolphthalein-containing laxative use with risk of ovarian cancer. Neither study showed strong evidence of an association. Last year's progress: Final paper in series was published