Low-dose aspirin is linked to a lower likelihood of some tumors growing and spreading, according to a study from Sweden. The researchers reviewed records from 80,000 patients in the cancer registries and found that those taking low-dose aspirin before diagnosis were 20 to 40 percent less likely to have metastatic disease.
Among colon cancer patients, for example, 19 percent of the aspirin users had tumors that had spread outside the colon compared to 25 percent of those not taking aspirin. The average tumor size was also smaller among aspirin users with colon or lung cancer.
Scientists do not know what is behind this association and caution that it is too early to assume that aspirin is the cause. Some other unidentified factor might be responsible. This is not the first study, however, to suggest that aspirin has anticancer activity.
Other research has found that aspirin takers are less susceptible to cancers of the colon, esophagus, lung, stomach, prostate, breast and skin. Regular aspirin use requires medical supervision, since the drug can cause gastrointestinal irritation and serious bleeding, even at low doses.
[British Journal of Cancer, online, July. 25, 2013]
You can learn more about the research on cancer prevention with aspirin by listening to our interview with Sir John Burn.
