SAN DIEGO, April 14 (Reuters)Combining a low dose of targeted cancer-fighter DFMO with an anti-inflammatory drug reduces the risk of new colorectal polyps, an early sign of colon cancer, by as much as 95 percent, researchers said on Monday.

A study conducted by the University of California, Irvine, also found that the drug combination is much less toxic than chemotherapy.

“There is a great hope that we will be able to prevent colon cancer effectively using this method. We had not been able to do this before due to the high toxicity of available therapies,” said Dr. Frank Meyskens, director of the universitys cancer center.

The results were so encouraging that the study was stopped early. After three years, the overall risk of recurrent adenoma was 12.3 percent in treated patients, compared with 41.1 percent for patients in the placebo group, or a 70 percent risk reduction.

For patients with more than one previous polyp, 0.7 percent of treated patients had a recurrence, compared with 13.2 percent of placebo patients -- a 95 percent reduction.

The researchers said an analysis of side effects and toxicity found no difference between the treatment and placebo groups. There also was no difference in side effects requiring overnight hospitalization, gastrointestinal side effects or cardiovascular side effects between the two groups.

Meyskens said larger trials will be needed to assess the risk of cardiovascular and other adverse side effects, as well as to determine whether the incidence of actual colorectal cancer can be reduced in either patients with low stage prior colorectal cancers or in very high risk individuals.