The Colon Club

Has anyone here taken a ton of Zantac before their diagnosis?

I ate it like candy during almost every one of my pregnancies. 150mg a day, daily for the majority of the last decade. I'm not sure if there is going to be any legal action taken against the makers, like they did with Roundup. If so, sign me up because there is no way I should have had cancer at my age, history and genetic testing.

I had to google Zantac as we don't have the same trade names in Denmark. So interesting!!

My boyfriend was prescribed the Danish equivalent when he had heartburn/reflux from chemo. We never ended up getting it, as we had a naturopath who told us that it wasn't a good idea. Something about the principle of how it worked, I don't recall the details. He was very adamant that we avoid it, so we ended up using other natural methods to address his reflux, despite several reminders from our oncologist. Guess he was right.

I hope they do something about this, if it really causes cancer or contributes to it. These things make me so angry.

Possibly as the drug has been recalled. You should search and see if there’s a class action suit brewing somewhere.

https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/pop ... 9092817911

Ugh. I have never taken this drug in any form. My parents have taken Zantac for decades, and they've never had any cancer anywhere in their digestive tract.

It's no proof either way of course, but I thought I'd respond regardless. My only risk factor was a largely sedentary lifestyle. I was golden on everything else.

Yikes! My husband takes Omeprazole daily, and apparently this too may not be good in the long term... Although in his case the source of his cancer is pretty clear - Crohn's disease when he was younger.

Just going to throw a few chemistry/pharmacology/epidemiology references in here before we all put our lawyers on speed dial

Prilosec is a proton pump inhibitor (PPI) that blocks the production of acid by the stomach.
Zantac works differently. It is an H2 (histamine-2) blocker that inhibits the action of histamine on the cells, thus reducing the production of acid by the stomach.
https://www.medicinenet.com/prilosec_vs ... rticle.htm

Update [12/18/2019] FDA is alerting patients and health care professionals to Glenmark Pharmaceutical Inc.’s voluntary recall of prescription ranitidine tablets (150 mg and 300 mg). The medicines are being recalled because they may contain unacceptable levels of N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA).

FDA has advised companies to recall their ranitidine if testing shows levels of NDMA above the acceptable daily intake (96 nanograms per day or 0.32 parts per million for ranitidine). The agency posted the results of its testing of ranitidine samples and has asked companies to conduct their own laboratory testing.

Patients taking prescription ranitidine who wish to stop should talk to their health care professional about other treatment options. Multiple drugs are approved for the same or similar uses as ranitidine.
https://www.fda.gov/drugs/drug-safety-a ... ranitidine

On September 13, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that low levels of a “probable human carcinogen” called N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) had been found in some Zantac products. In light of this news, Sanofi instituted a voluntary recall of all over-the-counter Zantac products in the United States as “a precautionary measure,” according to a public statement from the company.
https://www.self.com/story/zantac-recall-cancer

This is a drug supply chain issue, of a particular contaminant into specified manufactured products,
NOT an indictment of ranitidine as a potential carcinogen.

IF we have issues with the class of drugs we are taking ( i.e. H2 blocker ranitidine versus proton pump inhibitor Omeprazole )
THAT is a question for the patient and their medical team on an individual level, given personal needs for medication.

IF there is a drug supply chain contamination with potentially carcinogenic compounds ...
THAT IS AN ISSUE FOR ALL OF US !!!!
which Is why we have, in the past, referred to FDA sites, Health Canada sites and fraud monitoring sites for further clarifications and updates.


Just sayin'

Best wishes
CRguy

I took generic zantac(ranitidine) for years. I used it for my allergic asthma as it's also a histamine blocker. They replaced it with pepcid.

I'm really curious if anything comes from this, much like roundup and talcum powder.

I think it is best not to put cart ahead of horse yet. I have enough stuff to worry about that is actually happening, so I don't worry about other stuff until all the data is in.

I was trying to get OFF proton pump inhibitors and doctor scripted me for Zantac. I only took it for a year.

The good news is that the FDA advisory states that the level of contamination is “low” based on its own preliminary testing.
Also understand that not *every* batch was or is contaminated.
NDMA may also be found in a number of food products, such as cured meats, and is an ingredient in tobacco fumes. Fortunately, NDMA does not appear to accumulate in tissues.
In my research, "colon cancer" isn't actually one of the cancer types that they list for the zantac thing.

From Harvard Health publishing, Oct 2019:
The FDA has not yet released the results of its own tests of ranitidine. But they previously estimated the likely impact of NDMA found in another class of medications, called angiotensin receptor blockers, on the risk of cancer. That estimate provides some context for the current circumstances.

Angiotensin receptor blockers, including the drug valsartan (Diovan), are used to treat high blood pressure and other heart conditions. They were recalled beginning last year due to the presence of NDMA and other related impurities. The FDA estimated that, if 8,000 people took the highest dose of valsartan containing NDMA every day for four years, there would be one additional case of cancer over the lifetimes of these 8,000 people.

Currently, we do not know how the amount of NDMA found in ranitidine compares to the amount found in valsartan.

I don't have a sig line but here is how I found this forum:
2016: removal of large polyp mass with argan laser during colonoscopic surgery (mass was too large for gastro to removed during regular colonoscopy, so I was referred to a surgeon. Pathology came back "cancer in situ" in center of the mass. Contained.
2017, 2018, 2019 colonscopies clear other than a few new polyps which were not cancerous
Early detection saved me here, I dodged a bullet.

Amy, my mother has taken Zantac for years (20 or more.) She was DX with colon cancer two years ago. She is however 80 years old, but a very healthy 80 years old. Not sure because of her age it would of showed up anyway. I did see a commercial on TV yesterday for the first time from a law firm asking people to call a number they displayed if you or one of you loved ones took the drug and were DX with one of these cancers, and colon cancer was the first one mentioned. I should of written the number down, but didn't. i'm sure the law suits are going to be coming just like with the round up and baby power etc.. My mother's oncologist on her last visit took her off Zantac. A little to late if that was indeed the cause of her cancer.

It will be interesting to see what comes of this. I bet there are millions of drugs we take to treat certain aliments that cause many other problems we don't yet know about.

Deb

I had dreadful heartburn around the 6 mos mark of my sole pregnancy, and my OB/Gyn wouldn't even let me take Tums. She was hardcore!

I'm kind of surprised your doctors okayed Zantac in quantity.

It was recommended by 3 different OBs! Tums wasn't cutting it, so they said to get the Zantac. I mean, it totally helped with the heartburn. I just have to wonder if that might have caused my cancer. Maybe. Maybe it was just bad luck. Who knows.

I'm just so pleased to be in NED status. No matter how the cancer got there in the first place, for now, it's gone!

AmyG wrote:It was recommended by 3 different OBs! Tums wasn't cutting it, so they said to get the Zantac. I mean, it totally helped with the heartburn. I just have to wonder if that might have caused my cancer. Maybe. Maybe it was just bad luck. Who knows.

I'm just so pleased to be in NED status. No matter how the cancer got there in the first place, for now, it's gone!

Nope - You had cancer in your body even before you were pregnant with your child. It doesn't grow and metastasize that quickly! I figured my wife's was probably in her system between 7 and 9 years before she was diagnosed based on the size of her primary. Colon cancers rarely grow that fast. It takes probably over year for a polyp to form big enough to just be seen in a colonoscopy. That's generally why they do them for at risk people every three years instead of 5. Had she not skipped the 50 year colonoscopy they may have caught it before it metastasized and spread.

The Zantac issue is one of contamination of a product. Not the active drug itself. Somewhere along the way they were not careful in the chemical process for synthesis of the active ingredient and the NDMA was produced as a side product in much greater concentration than it would ordinarily be in the process. This was poor quality control in manufacturing of one or more batches likely in a third world country making the materials for multiple pharma companies to sell as was the case with the ACE inhibitor CRguy mentions. When the process is done correctly NDMA is either not produced or below the limits of detection. Someone took shortcuts and heated the pot up or let the reaction go too fast such that NDMA was produced in detectable amounts and rather than further purify to remove it or toss it and start again made it available on the market. And don't go instantly jumping to conclusions that the Pharma company selling it is wholly responsible. Its a known issue where third world manufacturers sometime alter analysis reports or even forge them and likely provide these to the drug company making up the formulation capsules, or tablets. The FDA spends a huge amount of money inspecting these manufacturing facilities and doing audits of reports, even analysis of samples themselves. BUt they are very over worked and can't keep up with all the inspections. This is what probably caught this. The process for making Zantac's active ingredient is very similar to the one used to make the ACE inhibitor. As a result of the ACE inhibitor debacle the FDA or even the formulators started to look more carefully at similar drugs using the same sort of synthesis conditions. This is why we have an FDA and another reason drugs are expensive. The Paper trail for all this is huge and un-wielding.

The first FDA submission I remember learning about that my company submitted to the FDA was a paper submission that filled two semi trailer trucks. Now a days this is electronic submissions, but still its a huge amount of documentation to weed through, and this paper or data mountain grows with every batch made. Zantac was produced in gigantic quantities I assume in thousands of batches over the years, by many manufacturing facilities I am willing to bet.

I believe it might have been bad luck in most of our cases. Never a single event but many coming together to trigger it. I spent a long time trying to figure out why my wife might have developed Colon Cancer. It was pretty much absurd that she should have it and not me. She was much more physically fit/active ate properly! I worked as a medicinal chemist doing anti-cancer drug discovery. I was exposed to a lot of very nasty reagents every day, for over 20+ years. Things that cause mutations, methylate DNA, etc. Some of the anti-cancer drugs I synthesized where pretty nasty themselves. and at least three that probably everyone on these forums take are bad actors. If you were healthy and were exposed to Oxy, Irinotecan, 5-FU its quite possible you would develop cancers of some sort if not other conditions.

I think the ambulance chasers have taken over the world and convinced everyone, it seems, to believe they are a victim now a days and someone or something is responsible. Sorry but nature doesn't care and likely doesn't work that way. Everyone if they live long enough like as not will get a cancer of some sort is my belief. Our cells just wear out. You may die of something else before that happens but if not you will probably get something. My nearly 100 hundred year old grandfather I am sure had some sort of skin cancer that was being monitored. He spent his whole life outdoors as a farmer exposed to the sun and Roundup as well as Pipe smoke! He smoked a pipe for most of his life. But Cancer didn't get him. It was old age! He was relatively health up to the end I think he just gave up after he had to go to a nursing home. (There one week) He passed away 4 months short of 100 when my wife was fighting for her life in the hospital for the last time at the age of 57! Its genes I think. Some people have better genes than others and are better able to avoid the mutations or control them avoiding cancer until they wear out.

Good luck in your journey.

GrouseMan

GrouseMan wrote:

AmyG wrote:It was recommended by 3 different OBs! Tums wasn't cutting it, so they said to get the Zantac. I mean, it totally helped with the heartburn. I just have to wonder if that might have caused my cancer. Maybe. Maybe it was just bad luck. Who knows.

I'm just so pleased to be in NED status. No matter how the cancer got there in the first place, for now, it's gone!

Nope - You had cancer in your body even before you were pregnant with your child. It doesn't grow and metastasize that quickly!

Oh, I wasn't suggesting it was from my most recent one. I've had 8 pregnancies since 1999 to 2019. I ate zantac like candy since at least 2004.

Ah, yes I see, but I feel this adulteration of the Zantac active ingredient was a recent issue, once it had gone OTC and its synthesis was farmed out to multiple API manufactures. See often years later a particular drug is not synthesized in the facilities owned by the patent holder or a pharma company that sells it. They contract out because they need to re-use their internal manufacturing facilities for new product development. This is one reason I am not a big fan of generics. Brand names from the original discovery company facilities will continue to have the proper PK/PDM properties baked in, where as sometimes these formulations are difficult to transfer to other manufactures that don't have experience with some of the technologies involved. Zantac today is not manufactured in the same way it was when it was originally a prescription drug owned by GSK. Its sold and distributed by Sanofi today. See:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranitidine

At one point the OTC product was owned in the US by Warner Lambert consumer products division and when Pfizer took over Warner Lambert to get their hands on Lipitor ended up with Zantac as well.

Just some history. The active ingredient in the drug is safe. Its the adulterant in the API that is the problem here and I believe this was introduced by sloppy manufacturing in facilities that were not as carefully supervised by the FDA in countries that make a habit of flouting regulatory rules. Also note that Tagamet has a similar mechanism of action but has been touted as the only drug in this class associated with an unproven ability to help treat colon cancer. There is quite a lot of incidental evidence of this effect, but no definitive studies. So everyone's mileage may vary.

Good luck on your journey

Grouse Man