Antisense oligodeoxynucleotide directed against c-myb has anticancer activity and potentiates the antiproliferative effect of conventional anticancer drugs acting by different mechanisms in human colorectal cancer cells.

The C-MYB proto-oncogene encodes a DNA-binding protein with transactivation properties that plays an important regulatory role in cell proliferation and differentiation. Overexpression of C-MYB in colonic tumors compared to normal mucosa suggests that c-myb may play a role in the malignant transformation of colonic mucosa and that inhibition of c-myb expression may suppress, to some extent, the proliferation of neoplastic cells. Complete suppression of tumor cell proliferation may require inhibition of multiple growth-promoting genes.