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Three New Studies Suggest Aspirin
May Prevent Some Cancers
By Grace Wiltbank
Contributing Writer
Some years ago, I consulted a specialist for help with arthritic pain. He prescribed some new expensive drug that I had never heard of and warned me against taking aspirin.
“If aspirin were invented today,” he said, “it would be barred from the market.”
I forget the doctor’s name but I remember that I tore up the prescription and never consulted the guy again because I was sure his censure of aspirin was a bunch of bull, probably inspired by a lucrative link with the drug company selling the drug he prescribed.
This was at a time when cardiologists and other physicians were already advising their patients to take a daily baby aspirin to prevent heart attacks.
Now British scientists have completed and published three studies showing that aspirin can help prevent some cancers and reduce the spread of others. More and more, it appears that aspirin, which can be purchased over the counter for next to nothing, relatively speaking, is a miracle drug.
Aspirin is a derivative of salicylic acid. Plant extracts containing salicylic acid have been used as a pain killer since antiquity. The drug we know as aspirin was concocted and named by the German company Bayer in the mid-19th century. Aspirin was first marketed around 1894.
One of the British studies (they were all published in The Lancet) involved a long-term followup of random trials scrutinizing aspirin’s success in preventing heart attacks. This study showed that “daily aspirin reduced the incident of colorectal cancer and several other cancers and reduced metastasis (the spread of cancer cells to other parts of the body).”
Similarly, this study showed, that aspirin helps reduce the risk of esophageal, gastric, biliary, and breast cancer, with the largest effects on the risk of gastro-intestinal cancer.
A second study determined that daily aspirin reduces the long-term incidence of some adenocarcinoma and might also reduce the spread of colorectal cancer. (Adenocarcinoma is a malignant tumor that arises in certain glands.)
However, while aspirin reduced the overall risk of fatal adenocarcinoma, the researchers said aspirin did not reduce the risk of some other fatal cancers. They also said “the absolute benefit” in aspirin “was greatest in smokers.” Low dose aspirin, they added, was as effective as higher doses.
The third study showed that “daily aspirin reduces the long-term risk of death due to cancer,” but that “the short term effect is less certain, especially in women.” Despite this, the researchers said, the case can be made “for daily aspirin in prevention of cancer.”
After reading about the British findings, I could not help but wonder if aspirin helped save me from colorectal cancer. After more than 10 years of no colonic procedures, I recently had a colonoscopy for removal of two polyps. One of them was large and flat, the kind that often is malignant. However, both of my polyps were benign. I had no cancer. I have been taking daily doses of aspirin for years.
A word of warning: no one should use the new, exciting findings as a reason for dosing himself or herself with aspirin. Check with your doctor before starting an aspirin regimen. Every drug has its side affects. Aspirin is no exception. In some people it can cause serious internal bleeding.
May Prevent Some Cancers
By Grace Wiltbank
Contributing Writer
Some years ago, I consulted a specialist for help with arthritic pain. He prescribed some new expensive drug that I had never heard of and warned me against taking aspirin.
“If aspirin were invented today,” he said, “it would be barred from the market.”
I forget the doctor’s name but I remember that I tore up the prescription and never consulted the guy again because I was sure his censure of aspirin was a bunch of bull, probably inspired by a lucrative link with the drug company selling the drug he prescribed.
This was at a time when cardiologists and other physicians were already advising their patients to take a daily baby aspirin to prevent heart attacks.
Now British scientists have completed and published three studies showing that aspirin can help prevent some cancers and reduce the spread of others. More and more, it appears that aspirin, which can be purchased over the counter for next to nothing, relatively speaking, is a miracle drug.
Aspirin is a derivative of salicylic acid. Plant extracts containing salicylic acid have been used as a pain killer since antiquity. The drug we know as aspirin was concocted and named by the German company Bayer in the mid-19th century. Aspirin was first marketed around 1894.
One of the British studies (they were all published in The Lancet) involved a long-term followup of random trials scrutinizing aspirin’s success in preventing heart attacks. This study showed that “daily aspirin reduced the incident of colorectal cancer and several other cancers and reduced metastasis (the spread of cancer cells to other parts of the body).”
Similarly, this study showed, that aspirin helps reduce the risk of esophageal, gastric, biliary, and breast cancer, with the largest effects on the risk of gastro-intestinal cancer.
A second study determined that daily aspirin reduces the long-term incidence of some adenocarcinoma and might also reduce the spread of colorectal cancer. (Adenocarcinoma is a malignant tumor that arises in certain glands.)
However, while aspirin reduced the overall risk of fatal adenocarcinoma, the researchers said aspirin did not reduce the risk of some other fatal cancers. They also said “the absolute benefit” in aspirin “was greatest in smokers.” Low dose aspirin, they added, was as effective as higher doses.
The third study showed that “daily aspirin reduces the long-term risk of death due to cancer,” but that “the short term effect is less certain, especially in women.” Despite this, the researchers said, the case can be made “for daily aspirin in prevention of cancer.”
After reading about the British findings, I could not help but wonder if aspirin helped save me from colorectal cancer. After more than 10 years of no colonic procedures, I recently had a colonoscopy for removal of two polyps. One of them was large and flat, the kind that often is malignant. However, both of my polyps were benign. I had no cancer. I have been taking daily doses of aspirin for years.
A word of warning: no one should use the new, exciting findings as a reason for dosing himself or herself with aspirin. Check with your doctor before starting an aspirin regimen. Every drug has its side affects. Aspirin is no exception. In some people it can cause serious internal bleeding.