no miracle solution. aspirin taken regularly does not protect against cancer as thought.
An aspirin a day keeps the doctor away. Where is he? A 10-year study casts doubt the widespread notion that low-dose aspirin helps to prevent cancer.
Aspirin takes advantage of pain by inhibiting the cyclooxygenase (COX) enzymes that cause inflammation, which recent research suggests can trigger cancer. And COX enzymes can also hurt by helping to build tumors of blood vessels. So it was exciting when laboratory experiments with animals have shown that aspirin helps prevent many cancers. Some human studies have also suggested that taking aspirin regularly can reduce the chances of developing the disease. The problem is that these studies relied on questionnaires about diet and lifestyle and the controls are not included. Despite the lack of hard evidence, many healthy people take aspirin regularly in hopes of dodging cancer among other diseases.
To see if the strategy works, a team led by Nancy Cook and I-Min Lee, doctors of public health at Harvard Medical School, enrolled 40,000 women in good elderly health over 45 ready take aspirin pills over a period of 10 years as part of a randomized trial US. All other days, the women jumped identical-looking pills that contained either 100 mg of aspirin, placebo or vitamin E.
A count of all cancers and other diseases appeared in women shows no benefit from taking aspirin or vitamin E (which is thought to help prevent cardiovascular disease), the team reports in the July 6 Journal of the American Medical Association . A possible exception may be lung cancer, which was 22% less likely to aspirin takers, although statistical significance is so thin that the effect could easily be due to chance, the researchers say. The team argues that low-dose aspirin used in the study may explain why the positive effects of aspirin seen in laboratory experiments do not translate to long-term health benefits. At higher doses, aspirin may keep the remote cancers, although a similar randomized trial would be needed to prove it. One drawback is that taking more than 100 mg of analgesic regularly can cause gastrointestinal problems, so the authors say it is unlikely that doctors will ever recommend high doses of aspirin for individuals who are not already known to be at risk of developing cancer.
"[The study] shows that the cornerstone of health remains a healthy diet and lifestyle," says Rita Redberg, a cardiologist at the University of California at San Francisco. "The Americans, particular are very interested in finding a magic pill that will prevent the disease, but it does not exist. "
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