A new study by Oxford University researchers says that taking a daily dose of aspirin has the potential to prevent bowel cancer. The details of the study appear in the latest issue of the Lancet.
The researchers examined data on 7,500 people who were involved in two UK trials conducted in the 1970s and the 1980s. They were randomly assigned to receive 300, 500 or 1,200mg of aspirin per day for a period of seven years. Some people in the study were given a placebo for a comparable duration.
The participants were followed up for two decades and researchers noted the number of bowel cancer deaths. They found that taking 300mg of aspirin per day for five years was associated with a 75 percent reduction in the risk of developing bower cancer in the next decade.
Aspirin was found effective regardless of the sex, age or race of the participants. In an accompanying review of 30 other studies, researchers found that aspirin exerted a protective effect in 50 to 60 percent of the cases.
"What we are saying is that for a subgroup of people at high risk of bowel cancer, they probably aren't going to be dramatically harmed by taking aspirin," said lead researcher Professor Peter Rothwell. "They may have some risk of bleeding in the stomach, but they will see potentially significant benefits in the reduction of their colon cancer risk."
