Researchers have mentioned that the regular use of aspirin may complement, but cannot ever take the place of colonoscopy and other methods of cancer screening.
Study’s senior researcher Andrew Chan from the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Division of Gastroenterology said they can now recommend people to consider about taking aspirin to lessen the risk of colorectal cancer, especially those with other reasons for regular use like heart disease prevention. But he also mentioned that they have not reached at a point where they can make a recommendation for overall cancer prevention.
“Our findings imply that aspirin use would be expected to prevent a significant number of colorectal cancers above and beyond those that would be prevented by screening and may have even greater benefit in settings in which the resources to devote to cancer screening are lacking”, affirmed Chan.
In the study, the researchers have assessed 32 years worth of data from around 136,000 participants in the Nurses' Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. Volunteers who reported regular use of aspirin had a 3% lower risk of any type of cancer than those who were not regularly taking it.
In the case of colorectal cancer, the risk was reduced by 17% and the risk of any gastrointestinal cancer by 15%. No such reduction was see in breast, prostate or lung cancer. It shall be noted that aspirin’s protective benefit started appearing after five years of continuous use at dosages ranging from 0.5 to 1.5 standard tablets a week.
Chan said that people can discuss with their physicians on taking aspirin to prevent gastrointestinal cancer but they must also be aware of its side effects.
A report published in the Business-Standard said, "We now can recommend that many individuals consider taking aspirin to reduce their risk of colorectal cancer - particularly those with other reasons for regular use, such as heart disease prevention - but we are not at a point where we can make a general recommendation for overall cancer prevention," said senior author Andrew Chan, from the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in the US.
"Our findings imply that aspirin use would be expected to prevent a significant number of colorectal cancers above and beyond those that would be prevented by screening and may have even greater benefit in settings in which the resources to devote to cancer screening are lacking," said Chan.
"At this point, it would be very reasonable for individuals to discuss with their physicians the advisability of taking aspirin to prevent gastrointestinal cancer, particularly if they have risk factors such as a family history," says Chan, an associate professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. "But this should be done with the caveat that patients be well informed about the potential side effects of regular aspirin treatment and continue their regular screening tests. Furthermore, aspirin should not be viewed as a substitute for colonoscopy or other cancer screening tests," according to a news report published by EurekAlert.
Aspirin's protective benefit appeared after five years of continuous use at dosages ranging from 0.5 to 1.5 standard tablets a week or one low-dose tablet a day. The researchers estimate that regular aspirin use could prevent close to 30,000 gastrointestinal tract tumors in the U.S. each year and could prevent an additional 7,500 colorectal tumors among U.S. adults over 50 who have endoscopic screening and 9,800 among the almost 30 million who are not screened.
In a report published by the NY Times, "The senior author, Dr. Andrew T. Chan, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard, pointed out that even people who undergo regular colorectal screening can develop cancers, and aspirin could help prevent some of those cancers as well."
“Based on our estimates,” Dr. Chan said, “we think that regular aspirin use could prevent almost 30,000 cases of gastrointestinal cancers a year, which account for almost 25 percent of all cancer deaths. So I think that’s pretty substantial.”
By: Betty Laseter.
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Research Unit, Flagship Records.
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