The Times: Daily aspirin found to reduce bowel cancer risk

This headline recently appeared in The Times. It was a report of a large Danish study which has been published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The researchers looked at cancer registries and data on aspirin prescriptions for more than 10,000 individuals in Denmark.  They aimed to see whether taking aspirin affected an individual’s risk of developing bowel cancer. They also looked at use of other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), for example, ibuprofen.

  

In keeping with many previous studies, the researchers found that people who took aspirin were less likely to be diagnosed with bowel cancer although, importantly, this only applied to individuals who took aspirin regularly over a long period of time (5 years or more). There are a number of limitations to this type of study – for example, information on other risk factors for developing bowel cancer were not available and may have affected the results. But the results are consistent with previous studies showing that long-term aspirin use appears to reduce the risk of bowel cancer.  Participants in the Add-Aspirin trial will have had a previous diagnosis and treatment for cancer, and so their risk of cancer returning will be higher than in the general population and they may derive an even greater benefit from taking aspirin. Participants in the Add-Aspirin trial will be asked to take  aspirin (or a placebo) for a period of at least 5 years, so that the effects of long-term use can be seen. We do not believe that this new information affects the rationale for the trial but we will continue to monitor all new information carefully.