Gastrin and colon cancer: a unifying hypothesis

Recently, a variety of studies in vivo as well as in vitro have demonstrated that gastrointestinal hormones can influence the rate of proliferation of neoplastic cells. The widespread use of omeprazole, which increases serum gastrin, coupled with the findings that omeprazole causes gastric carcinoid tumors in rats and that a significant number of patients with adenocarcinoma of the colon have increased serum gastrin have focussed attention on the relationship between gastrin and colon cancer. In the present paper, we have reviewed the experimental findings in humans, experimental animals, and colon cancer cells in tissue culture that bear on the possible relationships between gastrin and colon cancer. Based on these findings, we have proposed two hypotheses that can account for the increased serum gastrin that occurs in some patients with colon cancer.