Low doses of aspirin, taken daily and over the long term, cut cases of colorectal cancer by a quarter and the death toll from this disease by a third, according to a study published online on Friday by The Lancet.
Aspirin is already recommended in low, daily doses by many doctors for patients at risk of a heart attack or a stroke.High doses of this cheap, over-the-counter medication have similarly been found to help prevent cancer of the rectum and colon.
But, studies have also found, the benefits may well be outweighed by the risks, such as increased bleeding from high aspirin use.Eager to verify whether low doses can also be protective, researchers followed up four trials in Britain and Sweden, conducted in the 1980s or early 1990s, on the cardiovascular impacts of aspirin. The study entailed looking over centralised data banks to see whether volunteers in these trials had since died or been diagnosed with colorectal cancer.
On average, the trials lasted six years, entailing volunteers who took either aspirin or a dummy lookalike pill called a placebo. The doses ranged up to 1,200 mg. Out of 14,033 patients whose health could be traced 18 years or so since the trial, 391 hadcolorectal cancer, the investigators found. Taking aspirin reduced the risk of cancer by 24 percent and the risk of dying from it by 35 percent
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