Daily Aspirin Can Help With Bowel Cancer
The study adds to mounting evidence of aspirin's anti-cancer properties, both in prevention of the disease and promoting survival in patients.
Aspirin blocks the effects of COX
enzymes, proteins that help trigger inflammation and are associated with
a number of different types of cancer.
The latest study examined tissue from tumours from 999 patients with colon cancer who underwent surgery between 2002 and 2008.
Most patients had colon cancer diagnosed at stage III or lower, when it might be expected to spread, and they were all registered on a Dutch cancer database.
The latest study examined tissue from tumours from 999 patients with colon cancer who underwent surgery between 2002 and 2008.
Most patients had colon cancer diagnosed at stage III or lower, when it might be expected to spread, and they were all registered on a Dutch cancer database.
Of the 999 patients, 182 (18.2 percent) were aspirin users and among them there were 69 deaths, around 38 per cent.
There were 396 deaths among 817 nonusers of aspirin, amounting to 48.5 per cent.
Patients taking aspirin use after colon cancer diagnosis had improved overall survival compared with non users, by around 53 per cent.
The potential survival benefit of aspirin was strongest among patients whose tumours expressed human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I genes.
It is thought that aspirin helps stop circulating tumour cells from developing into cancers elsewhere in the body in these particular patients.
However, aspirin had no effect in patients whose tumours had lost their HLA class I antigen expression, says a report in JAMA Internal Medicine.
Study leader Dr Gerrit Jan Liefers, of the department of surgery, Leiden University Medical Centre, the Netherlands, said: 'Our data may have important clinical implications for both the dose and timing of aspirin as an anti-cancer agent.'
He said low dose daily aspirin may help prevent spread in patients with early-stage cancer.
'Because circulating tumour cells are found in the perioperative (pre-surgery) period, it could be argued that aspirin therapy should be initiated as soon as considered clinically appropriate after diagnosis,' he added.
Each year around 38,600 people in the UK are diagnosed with bowel cancer and the disease causes 16,000 deaths.
Dr Alfred Neugut, of Columbia University, New York, in a related commentary, said newly diagnosed patients often ask what more they can do besides medical treatment.
In future, he would be recommending aspirin as well because it's what he would take.
'When a patient or a patient's spouse asks, "What else should he be doing, Doctor?" - I will have a ready response,' he added.
A British-led study in 2011 found daily aspirin can cut the risk of developing cancer by as much as 60 per cent in a study of people with a family istory of the disease.
It suggested aspirin treatment could prevent up to 10,000 cancers over the next 30 years and possibly save 1,000 lives if taken by those with a genetic susceptibility to the disease.
Researchers say the biggest evidence for aspirin is in preventing bowel cancer, although it may lower the risk of other solid cancers.
Experts say healthy middle aged people who start taking aspirin around the age of 45 or 50 for 20-30 years could expect to reap the most benefit because cancer rates rise with age.
But there has been widespread concern that side effects such as stomach bleeding and haemorrhagic stroke would outweigh any advantage among healthy people.
There were 396 deaths among 817 nonusers of aspirin, amounting to 48.5 per cent.
Patients taking aspirin use after colon cancer diagnosis had improved overall survival compared with non users, by around 53 per cent.
The potential survival benefit of aspirin was strongest among patients whose tumours expressed human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I genes.
It is thought that aspirin helps stop circulating tumour cells from developing into cancers elsewhere in the body in these particular patients.
However, aspirin had no effect in patients whose tumours had lost their HLA class I antigen expression, says a report in JAMA Internal Medicine.
Study leader Dr Gerrit Jan Liefers, of the department of surgery, Leiden University Medical Centre, the Netherlands, said: 'Our data may have important clinical implications for both the dose and timing of aspirin as an anti-cancer agent.'
He said low dose daily aspirin may help prevent spread in patients with early-stage cancer.
'Because circulating tumour cells are found in the perioperative (pre-surgery) period, it could be argued that aspirin therapy should be initiated as soon as considered clinically appropriate after diagnosis,' he added.
Each year around 38,600 people in the UK are diagnosed with bowel cancer and the disease causes 16,000 deaths.
Dr Alfred Neugut, of Columbia University, New York, in a related commentary, said newly diagnosed patients often ask what more they can do besides medical treatment.
In future, he would be recommending aspirin as well because it's what he would take.
'When a patient or a patient's spouse asks, "What else should he be doing, Doctor?" - I will have a ready response,' he added.
A British-led study in 2011 found daily aspirin can cut the risk of developing cancer by as much as 60 per cent in a study of people with a family istory of the disease.
It suggested aspirin treatment could prevent up to 10,000 cancers over the next 30 years and possibly save 1,000 lives if taken by those with a genetic susceptibility to the disease.
Researchers say the biggest evidence for aspirin is in preventing bowel cancer, although it may lower the risk of other solid cancers.
Experts say healthy middle aged people who start taking aspirin around the age of 45 or 50 for 20-30 years could expect to reap the most benefit because cancer rates rise with age.
But there has been widespread concern that side effects such as stomach bleeding and haemorrhagic stroke would outweigh any advantage among healthy people.
Daily Aspirin Can Help With Bowel Cancer
![Daily Aspirin Can Help With Bowel Cancer]()
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