ריטלין גורם לסרטן

New study published in the 2005 Cancer Letters has found a link between Ritalin AND increased risk of cancer. The findings showed damage to the chromosomes of 12 children who had taken Ritalin for three months. Almost 30 million prescriptions for Ritalin AND similar drugs to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) were written last year in the United States; 23 million were for children. Although the study was small, the FDA, National Institutes of Health (NIH) AND the Environmental Protection Agency found the results merited public concern AND further study. Cancer Letters February 16, 2005 New York Times July 1, 2005 Forbes July 1, 2005

Reply to Letter to the Editor Response to comments on ‘Cytogenetic effects in children treated with methylphenidate’ by El-Zein et al. Randa A. El-Zeina, , , Matthew J. Hayb, Mirtha S. Lopeza, Melissa L. Bondya, Debra L. Morrisb, Marvin S. Legatorb AND Sherif Z. Abdel-Rahmanb aDepartment of Epidemiology, Box 1340, The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA bDepartment of Preventive Medicine AND Community Health, The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX 77555-1110, USA Received 7 October 2005; accepted 10 October 2005. Available online 15 November 2005. Cancer Letters Volume 231, Issue 1, 8 January 2006, Pages 146-148 We are writing in response to the comments of Preston et al.1 regarding our paper entitled ‘cytogenetic effects in children treated with methylphenidate [1]’. We certainly agree with the authors that the provocative findings of our study could have far reaching implications for the assessment of adverse outcomes from methylphenidate treatment. Also, it is important to state that we agree that further work is necessary before a definitive conclusion as to the genotoxicity of this drug can be drawn. In fact, this is consistent with our point of view presented in the Discussion section of our paper. We specifically noted that the study ‘should be replicated AND expanded by further studies in a larger population before a definitive conclusion about the genotoxicity of methylphenidate can be attained’. While we also agree with Preston et al. that there is published literature on the general toxicity of methylphenidate, we point out that specific studies on the genotoxicity AND on the carcinogenicity of this drug, particularly in humans, are very limited. The available studies, reviewed in the recent national toxicology program (NTP)—CERHR expert panel report on the reproductive AND developmental toxicity of methylphenidate [2], indicate that only one study addressed the carcinogenic risk of methylphenidate treatment in humans [3]. While this limited epidemiological study, conducted by screening pharmacy AND medical records, indicated that there was no increase in reports of cancer in a small number of patients taking methylphenidate (only 529 patients),