A new study provides more evidence that aspirin may do more than relieve everyday pain or help prevent a stroke or heart attack. The research builds on a growing number of studies that found a link between aspirin use and a reduced risk of cancer. In this case, the study found a significant reduction in liver cancer.

Among 300,000 people age 50-71, those who took aspirin were 45 percent less likely to die from chronic liver disease and 41 percent less likely to be diagnosed with liver cancer. People who took non-aspirin NSAIDs were 26 percent less likely to die from chronic liver disease but had no reduction in the risk of liver cancer.

The study followed the participants for 10-12 years. In that time, more than 400 participants died from chronic liver disease and 250 developed liver cancer.

Previous research has linked chronic inflammation associated with liver disease to cellular processes that could promote cancer development. Other research has also suggested that aspirin and other types of NSAIDs may help reduce the risk of some cancers.

The known causes of chronic liver disease and liver cancer are hepatitis B and C virus infections and alcohol use. A link with obesity and diabetes also has been suggested. In fact, studies have found that the diabetes drug metformin may reduce the risk of liver cancer by preventing fatty liver disease.

Sources:

HealthDay

Science Daily

Separate studies have found that aspirin and tamoxifen, a drug initially developed for breast cancer, may be effective treatments for prostate cancer.

One study found that among men with prostate cancer, those who took aspirin for other medical conditions were nearly half as likely to die of their cancer as the men who didn’t take aspirin.

The study involved nearly 6,000 men of which about one-third were taking aspirin or other anticoagulants. Over 10-years, the researchers calculated, the prostate cancer death rate for those taking aspirin was 3 percent, compared with 8 percent for those who did not.

The aspirin users were also significantly less likely to experience a recurrence of prostate cancer or have the disease spread to the bones.

This research adds to the growing body of evidence that aspirin may be effective for many types of cancer throughout the body. Aspirin use has already been found to have an effect on colon cancer.

As for how aspirin works on cancer, Dr. Otis Brawley of the American Cancer Society said he believes that aspirin’s anti-inflammatory properties may play a role in the prevention of both heart disease and cancer.

“Inflammation may not cause a cancer, but it may promote cancer — it may be the fertilizer that makes it grow,” Dr. Brawley said.

Tamoxifen for Side-Effects

In the tamoxifen study, researchers analyzed the results of four independent clinical trials that examined the use of tamoxifen to manage the side effects of a common prostate cancer treatment, androgen-suppression therapy.

Androgen-suppression, which blocks testosterone activity, can slow the progression of advanced prostate cancer. But these drugs can cause side effects such as breast enlargement and pain that may stop men from undergoing the treatment.

During the one-year study, the researchers found that tamoxifen reduced the risk of breast enlargement and breast pain in men at quarterly exams compared to men who did not take tamoxifen. The drug was also minimized painful breast symptoms better than radiation therapy or treatment with the aromatase inhibitor anastrozole, which is also used to treat breast cancer.

As a result, few of the men treated with tamoxifen stopped taking their medication during their year of treatment. And there were no significant side effects of tamoxifen reported.

Sources:

PubMed

New York Times

BMC Medicine

Evidence from three studies published this week indicates that aspirin may dramatically reduce your risk of cancer-related mortality and cancer metastases. These studies add to the already abundant research linking aspirin use to reducing the risk of many health problems including stroke, heart disease, asthma, and Parkinson’s disease.

In the first study, which investigated the use of aspirin to prevent vascular events (strokes), daily aspirin versus no aspirin reduced the risk of non-vascular mortality by almost 15%. Aspirin use also reduced the risk of death from cancer by 18%. Furthermore, aspirin seems to reduce cancer incidence and death across different forms of cancer and many cancer sites.

While aspirin therapy does raise the risk of major bleeding, the researchers reported that these effects diminished over time.

The second study, also investigating aspirins’ potential to reduce vascular events, the researchers analyzed data from several large randomized trials. Among 17,285 trial participants, 987 of whom had a new solid cancer diagnosed during the follow-up period, aspirin use reduced the risk for cancer with distant metastasis by 36%.

Aspirin use also reduced the risk for adenocarcinoma by 46%. Among patients with adenocarcinoma who did not have metastasis at their initial diagnosis and who remained on aspirin treatment up to or after diagnosis, the use of aspirin reduced the risk for metastasis on subsequent follow-up by about 70%.

Aspirin also lowered cancer mortality rates among patients who developed adnenocarcinomas.

The third study compared the effect of aspirin on the 20-year risk for cancer-specific mortality between observational studies and randomized trials. Overall, results from observational studies were similar to randomized trials, and showed that regular aspirin use lowered the risk for several cancers and for distant metastasis.

With regard to specific cancers, the authors observed consistent reductions in risks for colorectal, esophageal, gastric, biliary, and breast cancers. The largest effects were observed for gastrointestinal cancers.

Aspirin Therapy Safety

While daily aspirin therapy may lower your risk for many health conditions, it is not without risks and may not be appropriate for everyone.

Don’t start an aspirin regimen without speaking with your doctor first. Although taking an occasional aspirin or two is safe for most adults to use for headaches, body aches or fever, daily use of aspirin can have serious side effects and can affect other medications you may be taking.

Sources:

Medscape

The Daily Beast

Mayo Clinic

When we recently discussed the advantages of taking a low daily dose of aspirin to reduce a patient's risk of various forms of cancer, we've also felt the need to remind you about the inherent risks of taking it, even if you're a healthy Mom in waiting.

Excess stomach bleeding is probably the best known problem associated with taking low-dose aspirin. So much so, that the Mayo Clinic has devoted a "risks and rewards" page to it. Taking aspirin with other drugs like clopidogrel (Plavix), anti-inflammatories like ibuprofen and anticoagulants like warfarin (Coumadin), however, expands that risk, according to a recent study.

Spanish scientists compared the health and medicines taken by more than 2,000 patients (age 40-84) who suffered from stomach bleeding (31 percent of them were taking low-dose aspirin) to some 20,000 patients who were similar in age and gender and hadn't reported any problems.

The surprise wasn't that taking low-dose aspirin doubled a patient's chances of stomach bleeding or that taking warfarin and ibuprofen along with aspirin increased it beyond taking aspirin alone. Compared to taking no drug at all, the mix of clopidogrel and aspirin multiplied the bleeding risks of patients by as much as a factor of four.

Unfortunately, one option available to patients for treating stomach bleeding -- proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) like Prevacid, Nexium and Prilosec -- comes with its own set of problems too, namely a higher risk for bone fractures.

Circulation, Vol. 123, No. 10, p. 1108-1115, March 15, 2011

Yahoo News March 11, 2011

By now, you've probably heard a lot about a recent Oxford University study revealing the benefits of taking a low dose of aspirin daily (a 75 mg tablet is just 25 percent of the dose needed for pain relief) reducing the risk of various forms of cancer.

For the record, researchers came to their conclusions after examining data from eight trials (including more than 25,000 patients and 674 cancer deaths) that compared the effect of taking a daily aspirin versus not taking one. Interestingly, these trials were originally conducted to study the benefits of taking low-dose aspirin for preventing heart disease.

Overall, mortality rates attributed to cancer fell 34 percent over a five-year period among patients taking low-dose aspirin and by as much as 54 percent for gastrointestinal cancers (liver, pancreas, stomach, bowel and esophagus). What's more, this drop in cancer mortality was persistent over a 20-year period among those who took aspirin -- a 60 percent fall in esophageal cancer was reported -- surprising since scientists believe patients would've stopped taking the OTC drug after the trials were completed.

This led Oxford University's Dr. Peter Rothwell to speculate patients who begin taking low-dose aspirin in their middle years (late 40s-50s) may benefit most from this delayed preventative effect, especially at a time their cancer risks start to increase.

All that said, you shouldn't take a low-dose aspirin without consulting a physician and doing some homework on your own about the risks. For example, MayoClinic.com advises patients to avoid taking an aspirin if they have problems with asthma, stomach ulcers, heart failure or bleeding or clotting.

And, there's that recent study about OTC painkillers working like endocrine disruptors to trigger reproductive problems in male infants too.

The Lancet December 7, 2010

ScienceDaily December 7, 2010

Yahoo News December 6, 2010

Remember those pesky endocrine disruptors hiding in the average bottle of shampoo as well as many other consumer products that can upset the timing of puberty for young girls and create opportunities for many more health problems down the road?

A study of some 2,300 new moms in Finland and Norway found patients who took more than one over-the-counter (OTC) pain drug (ibuprofen, aspirin or acetaminophen) simultaneously during their pregnancy were seven times more likely to have sons with cryptorchidism (undescended testicles), a condition that can cause infertility or testicular cancer later on in their lives, compared to women who took no drug.

Even worse, the risk for cryptorchidism when Moms took more than one OTC pain drug during the second trimester exploded by a factor of 16. Even taking one kind of OTC painkiller is problematic for future moms and their boys during the second trimester, as aspirin and ibuprofen quadrupled the risk.

What does this have to do with "conventional" endocrine disruptors? The harmful effects of OTC analgesics on moms was mirrored by similar results on rats, specifically, when compared to those exposed to comparable doses of other endocrine disruptors like phthalates. In fact, researchers believe the health risks for boys whose future moms take OTC painkillers is markedly higher than those for other endocrine disruptors.

The lead researcher summed up these scary risks very succinctly: A single (acetamenophen) tablet (500 mg) contains more endocrine disruptor potency than the combined exposure to the 10 most prevalent of the currently known environmental endocrine disruptors during the whole pregnancy. In fact, a single tablet will, for most women, be at least a doubling of the exposure to the known endocrine disruptors during the pregnancy and that dose comes on a single day, not spread out over nine months as with the environmental endocrine disruptors.

Human Reproduction November 8, 2010

ScienceDaily November 8, 2010

Yahoo News November 8, 2010