Aspirin may reduce cancer mortality
This article was originally published in The Tan Sheet
Executive Summary
Regular aspirin use may lower the risk of cancer-specific mortality among patients diagnosed with nonmetastatic colorectal cancer, according to a Journal of the American Medical Association study. Of the 840 women and 439 men participating in the Nurses' Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study, 222 died from colorectal cancer. Only 15 percent of these deaths occurred among regular aspirin users, whereas 19 percent of deaths occurred among subjects who did not regularly use aspirin after their diagnosis, according to lead researcher Andrew Chan of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School and his associates. The results suggest this cancer type is sensitive to aspirin's potential anticancer effect, though cyclo-oxygenase-2-negative tumors might be aspirin-resistant