Writing in the journal JAMA Oncology, researchers from the Massachusetts General Hospital say aspirin therapy “significantly reduces the overall risk of cancer, a reduction that primarily reflects a lower risk of colorectal cancer and other tumors of the gastrointestinal tract”.
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They found that regular aspirin use for several years was tied to a lower risk of cancer in general, but that was mainly due to a reduced risk of colon cancer. They didn’t see a link between regular aspirin use and risk reduction for some other cancers, including cancers of the breast, prostate and lung.
Researchers looked at the association of aspirin with cancer among 135,965 women and men enrolled in two large USA studies of health care professionals.
During more than 30 years of follow-up, there were more than 20,000 cancers among more than 88,000 women, and more than 7,500 cancers among almost 48,000 men, the study found. Regular use of aspirin twice or more per week was associated with a 3 percent lower risk for all cancer.
The risk decreased by 15 per cent for gastrointestinal cancers – including tumours of the gullet, stomach, intestine and pancreas.
Eric Jacobs, PhD, the American Cancer Society’s strategic director of pharmacoepidemiology, told Healthline that the MA study backs up previous research showing long-term aspirin use can reduce gastrointestinal cancer risk.
‘Anyone looking to lower their risk of developing bowel cancer should reduce their intake of red and processed meat, high fat foods and alcohol, and have a healthy diet, take regular exercise and stop smoking’.
Aspirin is not a substitute for getting screened for colon cancer, he said.
The researchers suggest regular aspirin use could prevent 17 per cent of colorectal cancers among those who didn’t undergo screening and 8.5 per cent among those who did have the tube, called an endoscope, inserted for signs of the disease.
A new study released Thursday finds that aspirin, taken regularly in low doses, is linked to a lower risk for cancer.
The protective benefits of aspirin, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), appeared five years after taking continuous dosages ranging from 0.5 to 1.5 standard tablets a week or one low-dose tablet a day. However, other studies have come to the same conclusion, he added.
“To reflect accurately the often complex, real-world clinical scenarios in which physicians and patients contemplate the use of aspirin, any truly informative analysis of its use must weigh its cumulative benefits against its cumulative risks”, Vilar and colleagues wrote. “For now, learning that aspirin’s preventive effects of GI tract cancer seem to extend even to those individuals who undergo colorectal cancer screening provides further support for aspirin’s possible future use as a cancer-preventive agent”.
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The research was based on observational studies, so it is not as strong as a randomized controlled trial.
