DOI: 10.1097/01.OTU.0000398280.15613.b8
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Issn Print: 1742-8009
Publication Date: 2011/05/01
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Excerpt
The results of a study of over 2000 people were presented at the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting in April.
The Mayo researchers studied 904 patients with pancreatic cancer and 1,224 healthy patients, all over 55. The participants were asked about their use of aspirin, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and paracetamol.
Preliminary findings suggest that those people who took aspirin at least once a month were 26% less likely to develop pancreatic cancer than those who did not take one regularly. There was no similar benefit found for either non-aspirin NSAIDs or paracetamol.
Dr Xiang-Lin Tan, a research fellow at Mayo Clinic, said: ‘This provides additional evidence that aspirin may have chemoprevention activity against pancreatic cancer'. He pointed out, however, that more research would be needed to back this up and emphasised that people should not start taking aspirin for this purpose.
He added: ‘The results are not meant to suggest everyone should start taking aspirin once monthly to reduce their risk of pancreatic cancer. Individuals should discuss use of aspirin with their physicians because the drug carries some side-effects.'
Hazel Nunn, senior health information manager at Cancer Research UK, said: ‘Pancreatic cancer causes nearly 8000 deaths in the UK each year, and people can reduce their risk by being a non-smoker and keeping a healthy body weight. The jury is still out on whether regularly using aspirin could also lower the risk of this disease.
‘Aspirin may have an important role to play in reducing deaths from cancer, but it can cause serious side-effects. We still need to determine who it can help, how much they should take and for how long.
