A large new study has found that people who took aspirin regularly for at least 4 years were 21 percent less likely 20 years later than those taking a placebo to have died from a solid-tumor cancer.  The study has received wide media attention, but there are some important details described in some—but not all—the coverage.

Following up on intriguing hints that aspirin use is related to lower cancer rates, University of Oxford researchers went back to investigate cancer death rates among 25,570 participants in large randomized trials conducted decades ago to test aspirin’s affect on heart disease and stroke. During the trials, which lasted an average of four years, they found about 20 percent fewer cancer deaths in people taking aspirin compared to people taking a placebo.

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Taking either high or low dose aspirin reduces the chances the people with colorectal polyps (adenomas) will get more.

A combined analysis of three randomized controlled trials that compared taking aspirin to a placebo after adenomas were removed found that people who took a daily low dose or baby aspirin had almost a 20 percent lower chance of another adenoma during their next colonoscopy.  High-dose or regular adult strength aspirin reduced risk of polyp recurrence by about 15 percent.

Any aspirin reduced the risk of advanced adenomas by more than 35 percent. Read the rest of this entry »

ECCO/ESMO UPDATE — BERLIN 2009

Although initial reports found no reduction in polyps or cancer in people with Lynch syndrome who took aspirin and/or resistant starch supplements, longer follow-up tells a difference story.

About five years after trial participants began taking aspirin or a placebo, differences began to emerge. Even though patients in the trial only took aspirin for four years, later followup found significantly fewer colon colon cancers among those who had used  aspirin, as well as fewer Lynch-related cancers overall.   There were almost three times as many colon cancers in Lynch carriers who took a placebo compared to those who used aspirin. Read the rest of this entry »

A recent study suggested that patients with colon cancer lived longer when taking aspirin.

Aspirin is a very interesting drug which has showed to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and colon cancer risk and is a great pain reliever. The mechanism of action is the inhibition of an enzyme called COX-2. Read the rest of this entry »

Photo by Mara Zemgaliete

Colorectal cancer patients with early stage disease were 30 percent less likely to die from cancer and 20 percent less likely to die at all if they took aspirin regularly after their diagnosis.

Benefit was even greater for those who began taking the medicine for the first time after their diagnosis.

However, only the group whose tumors tested positive for COX-2 (cyclooxygenase2) benefited from aspirin.   Read the rest of this entry »