Asprin May Reduce Risk Of Coloreactal Cancer

Researchers report that aspirin may not only reduce the risk of getting colorectal cancer, but it also could lower the odds of dying once you have it.  According to the American Association for Critical Illness Insurance, hundreds of thousands of Americans who are diagnosed annually with cancer, do survive.  

Study participants with colorectal cancer who took aspirin regularly had nearly a 30 percent lower risk for death from the cancer and a 21 percent lower risk for death from other causes, according to the research, reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

 The researchers reported that following an average of roughly 12 years, 35 percent of the 549 people with colorectal cancer who took aspirin had died. That included about 15 percent whose death was attributed to the cancer.

 However, the study notes, among the 730 people with colorectal cancer who did not take aspirin, 39 percent had died, including 19 percent from the cancer.   The overall five-year survival rate was 88 percent for people who used aspirin, compared with 83 percent for those who did not. The 10-year survival rate was 74 percent for aspirin users and 69 percent for those who didn't use aspirin.

Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Harvard Medical School used data on 1,279 men and women with stage 1, 2 or 3 nonmetastatic colorectal cancer who were participating in two large studies, the Nurses Health Study that began in 1980 and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study that began in 1986.

Among 719 participants who had not used use aspirin before their cancer diagnosis, starting to take it once they'd been diagnosed was associated with a 47 percent lower risk for dying from the cancer and a 32 percent lower risk for dying prematurely from any cause.

Previous research has shown that aspirin might reduce the chances of developing colorectal cancer. Despite mounting evidence of aspirin's potential cancer-fighting properties, some medical experts have still stopped short of recommending that it be used to prevent or treat colorectal cancer.  Aspirin, they note, can cause side effects, including gastrointestinal bleeding. Further studies, including placebo-controlled trials of aspirin and other anti-inflammatory agents, are needed they explain.

SOURCES: Andrew Chan, M.D., M.P.H., assistant professor, medicine, Harvard Medical School, and gastroenterologist, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston; Alfred I. Neugut, M.D., Ph.D., professor, medicine and epidemiology, Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center, Columbia University, New York City; Aug. 12, 2009, Journal of the American Medical Association