Aspirin Linked to Reduced Colon Cancer Deaths

Colon cancer patients who regularly took aspirin after they were diagnosed were nearly 30 percent less likely to die from the disease, a new study suggests.

Aspirin already is a cheap and easy treatment for millions of people looking to lower blood pressure and prevent heart attack and stroke. While internal bleeding and irritation of the stomach and intestines remain serious side effects associated with aspirin use, taking the cheap little pills to reduce the chances of dying from colon cancer appears to be an encouraging new application of the common drug most people already have in their medicine cabinets.

Researchers from Boston’s Harvard Medical School said they found that patients who already have colon cancer can improve their chances of living by taking aspirin along with having traditional cancer treatments such as surgery and chemotherapy.

However, they stopped short of issuing a blanket recommendation for all colon cancer patients to start popping aspirin tablets. Further study already underway must be completed to more fully evaluate the risks and benefits of aspirin therapy, the study authors said. Those studies will compare taking aspirin to taking inactive placebo pills in order to test the effectiveness of the treatment.

Leading Form of Cancer Deaths

About 50,000 people die in the United States each year from all forms of colorectal cancer, including colon cancer, making it the second most common form of cancer death behind only lung cancer, according to the National Cancer Institute.

The study included about 1,300 colon cancer patients who were followed for an average of 12 years. Everyone in the study had undergone surgery for the cancer and many also had chemotherapy, the study authors said. The study participants were pulled from two large, ongoing studies called the Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study.

Of the 549 study patients who took aspirin regularly after being diagnosed with colon cancer, 81 (about 15 percent) died from the disease. By comparison, among the 730 people who did not regularly use aspirin, 141 (about 19 percent) died of the disease.

The study also took into account common cancer risk factors, such as family histories of patients, but researchers said overall, taking aspirin accounted for a 29-percent drop in the risk of cancer death, according to the authors.

Aspirin also only helped patients with colon cancer that tested positive for Cox-2, an enzyme that is blocked by aspirin. The enzyme is believed to be a factor in helping the cancer spread, researchers said.

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