Aspirin can cut cancer death risk

Taking aspirin daily can reduce the chances of dying for bowel cancer patients by almost a third, researchers have suggested. A study in the Netherlands found that patients who took the painkiller for at least nine months after diagnosis cut the risk by 30per cent. The study also found that those who took it for any length of time after being diagnosed reduced the odds by 23 per cent compared withnot taking it at all, the New York Daily News reported. Tests were carried out on 4,500 bowel cancer patients diagnosed between 1998 and 2007. The latest evidence suggests that the drug not only reduces the risk of dying from cancer, but can also help prevent the disease from developing in the first place. A quarter were not aspirin users, another quarter only took aspirin after diagnosis, while the remaining group took it both before and after developing cancer. "Our findings could have profound clinical implications. In this study, we showed the therapeutic effect of a widely-available, familiar drug that costs mere pennies per day," said lead researcher Dr Gerrit-Jan Liefers, from Leiden University Medical Centre. "It's possible that some older people may have other health problems which mean that they are not well enough to have chemotherapy. Bowel cancer is more common in older people so these results could be a big advance in treatment of the disease, particularly in this group. But we need further research to confirm this," he stated. Sarah Lyness, executive director policy and information at the charity, added: "This latest study adds to the growing evidence about the benefits of aspirin. The latest evidence suggests that the drug not only reduces the risk of dying from cancer, but can also help prevent the disease from developing in the first place. "But we are not yet at the point where we would recommend people start taking aspirin to reduce their chances of developing cancer. There are still questions we need to answer about the side effects, such as internal bleeding, who might benefit most from taking aspirin, who might be harmed, what dose and how long people some people might want to take it for," she noted.