Non Steroidal Anti Inflammatory Drugs as Gatekeepers Of Colon Carcinoma Highlight New Scenarios Beyond Cyclooxygenases Inhibition

Epidemiological data suggest that Non Steroidal Anti Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs) and Cyclooxygenase 2 (COX2) inhibitors (COXibs) can exert chemopreventive and antitumour effects in many human neoplasia. This is particularly true in colon cancer (CC), where the regular assumption of these molecules has been shown to exert chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic effects. Since the late '90s there was a progressive increase of experimental evidence, indicating that in CC the antiproliferative effects of NSAIDs and COXibs could be both dependent and independent from COXs inhibition, and that these effects do not necessarily exclude each other. This review will examine some of these COX-independent cellular pathways, with a focus on those involved in the inhibition of CC cells proliferation through transcription factors crosstalk.