Researchers Excited About Aspirin’s Potential Ability to Prevent Cancer

Here’s encouraging news. A recent report by American Cancer Society scientists says new data shows aspirin’s potential role in reducing the risk of cancer deaths.

The report, published online in Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology, says even a 10 percent reduction in overall cancer incidence beginning during the first 10 years of aspirin treatment could tip the balance of benefits and risks favorably in average-risk populations.

Guidelines for the use of aspirin in disease prevention now consider only its cardiovascular benefits, weighed against the potential harm from aspirin-induced bleeding. While daily aspirin use also has been convincingly shown to reduce the risk of colorectal cancer and recurrence of adenomatous polyps, these benefits alone do not outweigh harms from aspirin-induced bleeding in average-risk populations.

But recently published secondary analyses of cardiovascular trials have provided the first randomized evidence that daily aspirin use also may reduce the incidence of all cancers combined, even at low doses of 75 to 100 milligrams daily.

“The accumulating data from randomized clinical trials provide an exciting opportunity to reconsider the potential role of aspirin in cancer prevention,” write the authors. They say several important questions remain unanswered, such as the exact magnitude of the overall cancer benefit and which individual cancer sites contribute to this benefit.

For now, proper exercise and a nutritious diet can go a long way toward helping to prevent cancer, experts note. Home Instead CAREGivers^SM could be a motivating source of help by providing meal preparation assistance and encouragement to live a healthier lifestyle.  Contact your local office today.

For more about aspirin and cancer prevention possibilities, visit http://www.cancer.org/Cancer/news/News/study-aspirin-can-lower-cancer-risk.