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Studies find an aspirin a day can keep cancer at bay

2012-03-21 07:53:10

By Kate Kelland | Reuters

LONDON (Reuters) - Three new studies published on Wednesday added to growing

scientific evidence suggesting that taking a daily dose of aspirin can help

prevent, and possibly treat, cancer.

Previous studies have found that daily aspirin reduces the long-term risk of

death due to cancer, but until now the shorter-term effects have been less

certain - as has the medicine's potential in patients already diagnosed with

cancer.

The new studies, led by Peter Rothwell of Britain's Oxford University, found

that aspirin also has a short-term benefit in preventing cancer, and that it

reduces the likelihood that cancers will spread to other organs by about 40 to

50 percent.

"These findings add to the case for use of aspirin to prevent cancer,

particularly if people are at increased risk," Rothwell said.

"Perhaps more importantly, they also raise the distinct possibility that

aspirin will be effective as an additional treatment for cancer - to prevent

distant spread of the disease."

This was particularly important because it is the process of spread of cancer,

or "metastasis", which most often kills people with the disease, he added.

Aspirin, originally developed by Bayer, is a cheap over-the-counter drug

generally used to combat pain or reduce fever.

The drug reduces the risk of clots forming in blood vessels and can therefore

protect against heart attacks and strokes, so it is often prescribed for people

who already suffer with heart disease and have already had one or several

attacks.

Aspirin also increases the risk of bleeding in the stomach to around one

patient in every thousand per year, a factor which has fuelled an intense

debate about whether doctors should advise patients to take it as regularly as

every day.

Last year, a study by British researchers questioned the wisdom of daily

aspirin for reducing the risk of early death from a heart attack or stroke

because they said the increased risk of internal bleeding outweighed the

potential benefit.

Other studies, including some by Rothwell in 2007, 2010 and 2011, found that an

aspirin a day, even at a low dose of around 75 milligrams, reduces the

long-term risk of developing some cancers, particularly bowel and oesophageal

cancer, but the effects don't show until eight to 10 years after the start of

treatment.

Rothwell, whose new studies were published in The Lancet and The Lancet

Oncology journals on Wednesday, said this delay was because aspirin was

preventing the very early development of cancers and there was a long time lag

between this stage and a patient having clinical signs or symptoms of cancer.

Rothwell and others said deeper research was now needed into aspirin as a

potential treatment for cancer in patients whose disease has not yet spread.

"No drug has been shown before to prevent distant metastasis and so these

findings should focus future research on this crucial aspect of treatment," he

said.

Peter Johnson, chief clinician at the charity Cancer Research UK, said his

group was already investigating the anti-cancer properties of aspirin. "These

findings show we're on the right track," he said.

In a written commentary on the research in The Lancet, Andrew Chan and Nancy

Cook of Harvard Medical School in the United States said it was "impressive"

and moved health experts "another step closer to broadening recommendations for

aspirin use".

(Reporting by Kate Kelland; Editing by Susan Fenton)