Health
Aspirin May Thwart Colon Cancer
Orlando, Fla. -- Colon cancer patients who regularly take aspirin may cut their risk of relapse in half, researchers announced Monday.
Researchers did caution the study has limitations and enough evidence does not yet exist for patients to begin taking aspirin as a cancer therapy.
For years, studies have suggested that aspirin and other anti-inflammatory drugs can reduce the risk of colon polyps and cancer by 20 percent to 50 percent. "Those studies focused on preventing cancer," said Charles Fuchs, the study's lead author. A colleague presented the study's findings at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.
The new study examined aspirin and other painkillers as a treatment for patients with advanced disease, said Fuchs, an associate professor at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.
Researchers studied more than 800 patients who had undergone surgery and were going through chemotherapy. Patients completed surveys about their use of anti-inflammatory drugs and have been followed an average of 2 1/2 years.
The risk that cancer would return was 55 percent lower among 75 patients who regularly took aspirin than among nonusers, according to the study. "It's impressive that something so cheap could offer a benefit," Fuchs said.
Other anti-inflammatory drugs also appear to reduce cancer risk. "The 41 patients who used Vioxx, which is no longer on the market, or Celebrex, had a rate of cancer returning that was 44 percent lower than among nonusers," Fuchs said. There was not enough information to calculate those drugs' effects on death.
Doctors did not assign patients to take aspirin or other anti-inflammatories; they merely observed what happened to people who chose to take the drugs.
Although researchers tried to make sure both groups in the trial were similar, Fuchs said it is possible an unknown factor, rather than aspirin, reduced cancer risk.
Len Lichtenfeld, the American Cancer Society's deputy chief medical officer, says it is difficult to draw conclusions from a study in which relatively few patients used the drugs.
"Patients should use anti-inflammatory drugs with caution, because they can cause serious side effects," says James Abbruzzese, chairman of gastrointestinal medical oncology at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Vioxx was pulled from the market last year after a polyp prevention study found that the drug raised the risk of heart attacks and strokes. Aspirin also can lead to stomach bleeding and ulcers.
"Only a rigorous trial, in which doctors randomly assign patients to take aspirin or placebo, could prove that anti-inflammatories really lower cancer risk and if that benefit outweighs any potential harm," Fuchs said.
Source: Deseret News. Powered by Yellowbrix.
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