Tagament for colon cancer

I have been on OMEPRAZOLE
I have been on OMEPRAZOLE (prilocec) for last 1 1/2 years. My GP wants me to take it to protect stomach from all other drugs. Jean

lisa42 said:

Tagament
I'm also taking Tagament (also known as cimetidine) & have been for about six months now. I'm not taking it for stomach acid, but because of the results of a study & I have also read the Life Extension magazine article on it. I believe the study showed that in stage I and II patients on cimetidine (Tagament) and Xeloda for a year following resection surgery vs. patients on Xeloda only for the year, that the patients who also took cimetidine had far fewer metastasis (by a pretty big %- don't remember exactly how much, but I think it was actually around 30%). I talked it over w/ my onc about the value of taking it since I'm a stage IV. He said he didn't know, but it's harmless to take so why not. His thought was that maybe it would keep the cancer from spreading any further than it already is. Definitely worth taking and it's really cheap to get at Wal Mart.

Lisa

I wonder if Prilosec has the
I wonder if Prilosec has the same thing/effect....Need to research, tomorrow :-)

lisa42 said:

other antacids
I have never heard anything about any other antacid being effective or being part of a study for colon cancer. Personally, I don't think cimetidine/tagament is a very effective antacid and I still take an occasional Pepcid A/C, which I think works better. Prilosec is supposed to be much more effective for acid reflux, in that it works in a completely different way. I'm definitely not taking the cimetidine/tagament for an anti-acid- I'm taking it strictly for the possible benefits of helping the cancer to not spread any further. It's cheap, so I'd stick with the tagament for the possible anti-cancer-spreading benefit & take prilosec or another for problems with acid reflux or burning stomach. Because tagament isn't as effective against acid as some of the newer treatments like prilosec and a couple of others, it isn't sold everywhere, but I do know WalMart still carries because that's where I get it.

Antacids
I've been on Prilosec for 8 months - initially for antacid, but continued due to "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" good results in conjunction with chemo (which were quite possibly coincidental). However, recently I've read some info that suggests that proton pump inhibitors (e.g. Prilosec) may have significant cancer-killing benefits too.

Here's a link that goes into some of the related discussion; sorry for the very technical speak, but you can get the general idea:

http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/67/22/10627.full

BTW, sorry, don't mean to hijack a Cimetidine/Tagamet thread. I've looked into that too, and am well aware of the very interesting studies that show recurrence benefit when used before/after surgery. Not to mention anti-inflammation benefits in general.

However, in my own personal case, I decided to stay on Prilosec, so adding Tagamet in too seemed like it would have been overkill on stomach acid (some of which is of course necessary for digestion). I also spoke with a specialist from the MSKCC Integrative Medicine dept., but unfortunately they mainly focus on naturals/herbals, not trademarked drugs, so they didn't have an authoritative opinion on potential cancer benefits from Prilosec and/or Tagamet.

Best of luck to all of you in whatever complementary therapies you may choose. Too bad so much of this comes down to guesswork for us. Personally I've done lots of research, but found way too much inconclusive info.

P.S. Allow me to throw in a somewhat random suggestion: Maitake mushroom (aka D-fraction) extract. It was recommended to me by MSKCC Integrative, and supposedly strengthens the immune system and may have anti-cancer activity. Plus it falls into the key category of substances that "may help", but "almost certainly will not hurt". (Heck, Tagamet may fall into that category too.)

-Chip