Scientists claim aspirin reduces cancer risk in person with innate vulnerability

Scientists claim aspirin reduces cancer risk in person with innate vulnerability

A study conducted under the supervision of Professor John Burn of Newcastle University has suggested that the people who have an inborn susceptibility of cancer may have advantage from using aspirin on daily basis. The research states that by taking aspirin, the patients with an innate condition, who are also called Lynch syndrome, can reduce the risk of cancer dramatically.

The study claims that the risk of bowel cancer or colorectal cancer (often referred as small or large intestine cancer) exists more than 60% in the people, who have a specific genetic tendency to catch the disease. But on the other hand, the study also states that a regular intake of aspirin can very well reduce the risk of bowel cancer and other inherited cancers too.

Scientists who conducted this study said that the doctors may advise the people with family members suffering from cancers other than breast, blood and prostate to take aspirin daily from the age of 45. According to the outcome of a 10-year research on the cure of cancer, the people having a family history of cancer can halve the risk of the disease development by using a daily dose of aspirin.

As for those patients who do not have any innate vulnerability of the disease, the scientists say that they might also benefit themselves with aspirin but first they should get medical advice and then use aspirin. Anyone who thinks of using aspirin as a remedy for cancer must consult their doctor first. For people with amplified risk of heart attacks and strokes, the doctors already prescribe a low daily dose of aspirin.

 The research involved people who had Lynch syndrome, a hereditary defect that dispose carriers to develop bowel cancer and other solid organ cancers which includes ovarian, endometrial, kidney, stomach, brain, oesophageal and skin tumours. This condition affects at least one in 1,000 people and carriers are 10 times as likely to develop the cancer.

John Burn estimated that some 10,000 cancers would be overcome within the next 30 years if all 30,000 or so people suffering from Lynch syndrome in the UK start taking two aspirin tablets a day.

Burn said, “People with a genetic susceptibility are a model system. They are more sensitive to the environmental triggers to cancer. If we can do something to change cancer progression in people at high genetic risk, then that’s telling us what we might all benefit. But we are not making a recommendation for the general population. Everyone can take this evidence and make their own choice.”

The professor added, “In between you have the people who have a family history [of cancer]. Those individuals may well decide to put themselves on aspirin and that would be a reasonable conclusion from the data currently available.”

Half of a group of 861 Lynch syndrome carriers were given two aspirins (600mg) a day between a period from 1999 and 2005, while the rest took placebos. By the year 2010, the carriers who had taken aspirin for minimum two years were 63% less likely to catch developed bowel cancer. Almost 30% of the placebo group people got a Lynch syndrome-related cancer as compared to those 15% who were given aspirin.

There are some side effects in using aspirin and the most common of them are gastrointestinal ulcers and stomach bleeding. A very small risk of haemorrhagic stroke is also there, in which a blood vessel bursts in the brain.

The researchers will launch a website on Friday to engage 3,000 people with Lynch syndrome worldwide to take part in a five-year trial for determining the best dose of aspirin to use.

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Posted by Zeeshan Gohar on Oct 28 2011. Filed under Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry