Daily low-dose aspirin linked to reduced risk of certain cancers
Taking low-dose aspirin every day may lower the overall risk of cancer by 3 percent, mostly because of larger reductions that were seen in the risk for colon and gastrointestinal tumors, researchers are reporting. But the benefit was only seen after six years of taking aspirin almost daily, the study authors said.
That makes sense, because cancers dont typically develop overnight. They take years to develop, so you would have to take aspirin for a long time to prevent cancer, said senior researcher Dr. Andrew Chan, from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
There is scientific evidence that aspirin has an effect on certain biological pathways that can result in cancer, he said. And it also reduces inflammation and the amount of some cancer-causing proteins. This study shows only that taking aspirin is associated with a reduction in the risk of cancer, not that it prevents the disease, Chan said. However, other studies have come to the same conclusion, he added.
Hawk is vice president of the division of cancer prevention and population sciences at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, in Houston. He said, This is another study suggesting reductions in gastrointestinal and colon cancers among people who take aspirin for other reasons, such as reducing the risk of heart attacks or treating arthritis and relieving pain. Hawk co-authored an editorial that accompanied the research. For the study, Chan and colleagues looked at the link between aspirin and cancer among more than 130,000 women and men who took part in the long-term Nurses Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. 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 nearly 48,000 men, the study found.
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