Further evidence of the benefits of taking aspirin for people with bowel cancer

A recent report has provided further evidence to suggest that individuals who take aspirin following a diagnosis of colorectal (bowel) cancer are less likely to die from their cancer. The study included 2400 individuals with bowel cancer from Australia, Canada and the U.S. They were asked about the medications they were taking and were followed over a number of years. This was not a clinical trial - a trial is the only way to demonstrate a definite link between aspirin and cancer deaths, and so these findings need to be confirmed.

The researchers reported that, as shown in some other studies of this kind, those individuals who were taking aspirin were less likely to die from their cancer (and less likely to die overall), particularly if they started taking aspirin after their diagnosis.

The researchers also looked at samples of cancer tissue from the participants – their findings suggested that taking aspirin was most likely to be beneficial for individuals whose cancer had a specific genetic make-up (known as “KRAS wild-type”). This is a new finding and needs confirming in other studies. The research was reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

There are some important limitations to this type of study; in particular; there are many other factors that will affect an individual’s risk of dying, and these may differ for those people who did take aspirin and those who did not. In the Add-Aspirin clinical trial, some participants will take aspirin and others will take a placebo (dummy) tablet – this is decided at random to ensure a fair comparison. Add-Aspirin participants are also being asked to donate samples of their cancer tissue for research that will investigate how aspirin works against cancer and which individuals might benefit the most. This new research further highlights the need for a trial to answer these questions once and for all.