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Does AZT cause cancer?
An N1H advisory panel says the results of a recent study
are inconclusive and warrant no changes for now
y
by Bob Roehr
tumors in at least four different animal species.
study in mice conducted by the Na
Advisory committee members found the NCI
tional Cancer Institute has raised fears
study interesting but questioned its immediate
that AZT might cause cancer. The
work was completed in November
applicability to human therapy.
and prompted an advisory committee
Edward Bresnick, an animal researcher at the
meeting at the National Institutes of Health
on
University
of Massachusetts Medical Center,
Jan. 14. The panel concluded that the study was
called it "a fine model, but I don’t think it is ready
“worrisome” from a theoretical perspective and
for prime time.”
suggested more research. The panel also said that
Jean-Pierre Sommadossi, a pharmacologist at
the data itself bears little immediate relevance for
the University of Alabama at Birmingham, ques
humans and merits no changes in current recom
tioned the use of a mouse model. He pointed out
mendations for use of AZT
that there are “major dif
as therapy.
ferences” in the way mice
and humans metabolize
Clinical trial ACTG
AZT.
076, concluded three years
ago, demonstrated that
Dr. Lucy Anderson,
AZT is effective in greatly
who conducted the study,
reducing the perinatal
was asked for her recom
transmission of HIV from
mendation on continued
mother to fetus. The trans
use of AZT in pregnant
women. She responded,
mission rate was 25.5 per
cent in the placebo group
“Whatever the cancer ri sk
but only 8.3 percent in the
might be, it is certainly
AZT arm of the trial. By
less than that of HIV in
mid-1994 AZT had be
fection.”
Patricia Whitley-Wil
come the recommended
standard of therapy for
liams, a professor at the
pregnant women.
Robert Wood Johnson
The NCI study looked
Medical School, noted
at whether exposure to
the resistance to using
AZT in utero would in
AZT within the African
crease the risk of cancer
American community.
when the child grew to be
She feared “this data is
an adult. It chose mice and
going to raise even more
rats as the test subjects.
resistance.”
The pregnant rodents were heavily dosed with
Several members of the HIV/AIDS commu
AZT, at rates much higher than those used in
nity raised the specter of mandatory testing and
humans, to the point just short of spontaneously
possibly mandatory medication of a drug that
aborting the young. Normal births occurred and
might cause cancer. They urged the committee to
the young were followed. Tumors began to ap
consider the political ramifications of its actions
pear at abnormal rates at about 12 months, the
as well as the scientific ones.
human equivalent of approximately age 30.
Anthony Fauci, director of the National Insti
Those results may conflict with an earlier
tute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, joined the
study by Glaxo Wellcome, the manufacturer of
audience for the afternoon session. He summarized
AZT, which took a slightly different focus. It was
the results by saying, “We’re not sure what it [the
designed to measure the long-term carcinogenic
NCI study] means, but we are obligated to bring it
effect of the drug in animals at blood levels that
to your attention.” He pressed for more research but
approximated those found in humans under nor
concluded, ‘The evidence that we have seen thus
mal dosing. It found no abnormal occurrence of
far does not warrant any changes” in therapy.
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The Clinton administration is going to spend
up to a million dollars compiling scientific evi
dence on the health effects of marijuana. “A lot of
people have said we’re not interested in the facts
on this—and I think this shows that we are,” said
Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman
Bob Weiner.
The report, not new research but a gathering of
what is already known, supposedly was commis
sioned in December by the DEA from the Institute
of Medicine and should be completed in about 18
months. Yet for some unexplained reason the
study was not mentioned at a press conference
later that month at which drug czar retired Gen.
Barry McCaffrey, Attorney General Janet Reno,
and Secretary of Health and Human Services
Donna Shalala bashed the medical use of mari
juana.
“Putting McCaffrey in charge of investigating
medical marijuana is like putting Hillary Clinton
in charge of investigating Whitewater,” said Steve
Michael of ACT UP-Washington, “we know what
is going to happen.”
There are a vast number of anecdotal accounts
but little truly scientific research to examine.
Pharmaceutical companies have no financial in
terest in conducting research into medical mari
juana because it cannot be licensed for future
profit, while for four years the DEA has effec
tively blocked the one proposed clinical trial into
marijuana’s effectiveness as a therapy in AIDS
wasting syndrome. That trial protocol was cre
ated by San Francisco medical researcher Dr.
Donald Abrams with a review and approval by the
Food and Drug Administration.
The DEA also has a history of ignoring results
it doesn’t like. In the late 1980s it charged admin
istrative law judge Frank L. Young with examin
ing the medical use of marijuana. The judge
concluded that “Marijuana has been accepted as
capable of relieving the distress of great numbers
of very ill people and doing so with safety under
medical supervision.” The DEA rejected his con
clusions.
Bob Roehr
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