Headline: Add-Aspirin has successfully completed recruitment and randomised 8,756 people who’d recently had, or are having, cancer treatment.
The Add-Aspirin trial has reached a major milestone, completing recruitment after ten years of dedicated effort. Over 10,000 people who’d recently had, or are having, treatment for breast, colorectal, prostate, or gastro-oesophageal cancer signed up. Of those, 8,756 were eligible to continue into the next phase of the trial.
Add-Aspirin is the largest trial ever to investigate whether a common, low-cost medicine - aspirin -can lower the risk of certain cancers from coming back.
There’s growing scientific evidence suggesting that taking aspirin regularly could be an effective adjuvant therapy —a treatment given after the main cancer therapy to reduce the chances of the cancer coming back
To test this, participants are being randomly assigned to take either aspirin or placebo (a pill with no active medicine) once a day for up to five years. Two out of three participants will receive aspirin, either 100 mg or 300 mg daily, to help researchers find out whether aspirin has an effect, and if so, what dose works best. If proven effective, aspirin could offer a breakthrough in cancer care, especially in countries with fewer resources, where access to expensive cancer treatments is limited and cancer rates are rising.
Recruitment for Add-Aspirin began in 2015 and took place at nearly 200 hospitals across the UK, the Republic of Ireland, and India.
Next Stage of the trial:
With recruitment now completed, the Add-Aspirin team will continue to monitor participants over the coming years. Primary analyses are expected over the coming years, as shown in the diagram below.
The Add-Aspirin trial is being jointly funded by Cancer Research UK, the National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment Programme and the Medical Research Council. In India, the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust provides funding.
Further information:
Contact Details
If you are an individual who is interested in taking part in Add-Aspirin, please talk to your doctor who will be able to consider whether you are suitable for the trial.
For healthcare professionals
Please log into the members area for Add-Aspirin contact details.
Register Interest
For healthcare professionals
If your centre would like to recruit participants to Add-Aspirin, contact us:
mrcctu.add-aspirin@ucl.ac.uk
From Monday 16th March 2020, to RANDOMISE a participant in the UK please call +44 (0)20 7670 4925, rather than the usual randomisation line.
To RANDOMISE a participant from Republic of Ireland or India only, please use the 'Register a participant' link above to randomise online. Please make sure to press 'Randomise' once logged in to the server.
Unblind a participant in the UK