Accumulating evidence suggests that aspirin could decrease the risk of a cancer diagnosis or the chance of death from commonly diagnosed cancers. However, studies and clinical trials have been mixed, and do the benefits outweigh the risks of gastrointestinal bleeding and peptic ulcers?
References:
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According to a 2012 study, a daily aspirin helped extend the lives of colorectal cancer patients whose cancer had a mutated PIK3CA gene. Patients with the mutation who used aspirin regularly after their initial diagnosis had an 82% reduced risk of death from colorectal cancer and a 40% reduced risk of death overall compared with patients who had the PIK3CA mutation but did not use aspirin on a regular basis. Patients who had a non-mutated PIK3CA gene did not benefit from aspirin use. Twenty-three of 90 patients who had PIK3CA-mutated tumors and did not use aspirin died within 5 years of diagnosis, while only 2 of 62 patients who did use regular aspirin died within the same time period (P
A 2012 study found that aspirin was associated with a reduced risk of prostate cancerâspecific mortality in patients previously treated with prostatectomy or radiotherapy. The reduction of prostate cancer deaths was seen especially in men with high-risk disease (4% vs 19% at 10 years; P