Daily aspirin tied to decreased risk of cancer mortality

Daily aspirin over at least 5 years appears to greatly reduce mortality from gastrointestinal and non-gastrointestinal cancers, according to research published online in The Lancet, HealthDay News reported.

Peter M. Rothwell of the University of Oxford (United Kingdom) and colleagues studied the outcomes of 8 randomized trials, including 25,570 patients, of daily aspirin versus no aspirin for 4 or more years to determine the effect of daily aspirin on mortality from gastrointestinal and non-gastrointestinal cancers.

Based on 674 cancer-related deaths, researchers determined that allocation to daily aspirin reduced cancer-related mortality by 21%. This benefit was apparent only after 5 years of follow-up, at which point there was a 54% reduction in death from gastrointestinal cancers and a 34% reduction in death from all cancers. Based on long-term follow-up of patients after the trials, including 1,634 cancer deaths, researchers determined that the 20-year risk of cancer death was 20% lower in groups previously allocated aspirin than in controls for all solid cancers and 35% lower for gastrointestinal cancers.

“These findings have implications for guidelines on use of aspirin and for understanding of carcinogenesis and its susceptibility to drug intervention,” according to the authors.

Several authors disclosed financial relationships with pharmaceutical companies.