Crohn's disease leading to bowel cancer may be avoided by consumption of soya isoflavones: adjunct-chemotherapy with oxaliplatin.

Crohn's disease (inflammatory bowel syndrome) is caused by gut exposure to harmful reactive oxygen species (ROS) derived from oxygen, such as the superoxide anion ((.)O(2)'), the hydroxyl radical ((.)OH) or the peroxide anion (O(2)''): the superoxide anion is generated by breakdown of oxygen-peroxidised phospholipids membranes. Crohn's disease predisposes to bowel cancer in susceptible human sub-populations. It may be preventable in these as yet unpredictable sub-populations by dietary-based intervention strategies, such as the daily consumption of appropriate quantities of soya isoflavones. These isoflavonoids are ROS-directed antioxidants, and they include the phytoestrogens, daidzin and genistin present in soya foods (consumed also in dietary supplements). Oxaliplatin is a platinum-containing Pt(II) organometallic therapeutic agent that binds to tumour DNA. Oxaliplatin may provide, therefore, a form of chemotherapy for some bowel cancers especially when administered in adjunct-chemotherapies that employ inhibitors of proliferation of the tumour cell. Such inhibitors include 5-fluorouracil, which prevents the correct replication of tumour cell DNA that is an essential prerequisite for bowel tumour growth. Furthermore, the therapeutic index for adjunct-chemotherapy with toxic inhibitors of DNA replication and expression could potentially be raised significantly by an associated dietary regime. This should include supplementation daily, per or, with antioxidant isoflavones (or other bioflavonoids) in selected cases of unresponsive cancer of the bowel, to possibly seek to trigger the pathway of apoptosis (programmed cell death) in the tumour cells preferentially.