# PRESURGICAL INTRAVENOUS NUTRITION AND RECTAL CANCER

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF TX MD ANDERSON CAN CTR · 1987 · $100,867

## Abstract

A early hypothesis of nutritional therapy in cancer management
was if host nutritional status could be maintained or improved,
then host survival should also improve.  Several clinical trials
were designed to test this hypothesis and found that total
parenteral nutrition (TPN) did not increase the survival of
patients with various neoplastic diseases treated with systemic
chemotherapy.  The failure of aggressive nutritional therapy to
improve patient survival may be attributed to the competition of
host and tumor tissues for nutrients.  While TPN can maintain or
improve host nutritional status, tumor consumption of nutrients
can result in progressive tumor growth, leading to early host
demise as suggested by some investigators.  Although TPN-
induced tumor growth in man has not been observed, recent
evidence suggests that TPN may stimulate tumor growth.
Because polyamine biosynthesis is necessary for cell
proliferation, our finding that increased erythrocyte polyamine
levels appearing in cancer patients receiving TPN and not in
noncancer patients treated similarly suggested enhanced tumor
growth.  Further studies are needed to provide direct evidence
that TPN-induced increases of RBC polyamines are associated
with measurable accelerated tumor growth.  A preliminary study
has shown that TPN stimulates tumor growth during the plateau
phase of its Gompertzian curve.  Controlled studies are
necessary to determine if this increased tumor growth is
associated with increased RBC polyamine levels.  The polyamine
biosynthetic pathways may be an important focus for designing
therapeutic manuvers that selectively divert nutrients to host
tissues and away from neoplastic cells.  The hypothesis is that
administration of polyamine inhibitors during TPN may inhibit
tumor utilization of nutrients and improve host nutrition.
Difluoromethylornithine (DFMO) is a specific irreversible
inhibitor of ornithine decarboxylase and its effect on host-tumor
competition for nutrients will be studied.  The specific aims of
this study are a) to determine if TPN will produce significant
increases of RBC polyamine levels and tumor size during the
nonexponential phase of growth, b) to determine if the
administration of DFMO during TPN improves host utilization of
nutrients while inhibiting tumor growth, and c) determine if
DFMO in combination with cytotoxic chemotherapeutic agents
will produce tumor regression further improving host utilization
of exogenous nutrients.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 3172173
- **Project number:** 2R01CA034465-04A1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF TX MD ANDERSON CAN CTR
- **SAM.gov UEI:** S3GMKS8ELA16
- **Principal Investigator:** DAVID M. OTA
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 1987
- **Award amount:** $100,867
- **Award type:** 2
- **Project period:** 1983-06-01 → 1990-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/3172173

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 3172173, PRESURGICAL INTRAVENOUS NUTRITION AND RECTAL CANCER (2R01CA034465-04A1). Retrieved via MORVS 2026-10-25 from https://api.morvs.ai/grant/nih/3172173. Licensed CC0.

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