Vitamin E delta-tocotrienol and metabolite 13'-carboxychromanol inhibit colitis-associated colon tumorigenesis and modulate gut microbiota in mice.

Abstract The gut microbiota play important roles in colon cancer. Vitamin E δ-tocotrienol (δTE) and its metabolite δTE-13′-carboxychromanol (δTE-13′) are known to have cancer-preventive effects, but their impact on gut flora during tumorigenesis and the role of the metabolite in δTE's beneficial effects remain to be determined. In the murine colitis-associated colon cancer (CAC) induced by azoxymethane (AOM) and dextran sulfate sodium (DSS), we show that δTE and δTE-13′ inhibited the multiplicity of large adenomas (>2 mm2) by 34% (P