Study Finds Strong Link Between Daily Aspirin and Cancer Prevention

Researchers at Oxford University, examining the cancer death rates of 25,570 patients who had participated in eight different randomized controlled trials of aspirin that ended up to 20 years earlier, established that people taking a daily aspirin were 20% less likely to have died of solid tumor cancers than those who were taking placebos.

Published in the British journal, The Lancet, the study found that for the aspirin taking group, the risk of gastrointestinal cancer death was 35 percent lower; the risk of lung cancer death was 30 percent lower; the risk of colorectal cancer death was 40 percent lower; and the risk of esophageal cancer death was 60 percent lower. Only one-third of the total study participants were women, not enough to calculate any estimates for breast cancer. In addition, aspirin was not found to significantly influence the risk of death from pancreatic, prostate, bladder, kidney, brain, or blood cancers. The participants were taking 75 mg of aspirin daily, the equivalent of a baby aspirin, which is the amount recommend to prevent heart disease. 

Previous studies have found that taking a low-dose aspirin tablet daily can lower the risk of getting and dying from colon cancer; this is the first study to show the drug may protect against other cancers as well. “This study provides important new evidence that long-term daily aspirin use may lower mortality from certain cancers in addition to colorectal cancer,” said Eric Jacobs, PhD, American Cancer Society strategic director of pharmacoepidemiology. However, the potentially severe side effects mean "it would be premature to recommend people start taking aspirin specifically to prevent cancer," he notes. Even a low dose of aspirin increases the risk of gastrointestinal bleeding.

Dr. Merrell's Take: This study suggests that taking low-dose aspirin in middle-age, which many people already take to prevent a heart attack, has additional anti-inflammatory benefits that seem to protect against cancer. In addition, younger adults with a strong family history of solid tumor cancers, including colon cancer, may want to consider (in consultation with their health care provider) daily low-dose aspirin as long as they don't have a history of gastrointestinal bleeding.