Aspirin can have a “enormous effect” in stopping the return of colorectal cancer, the results of the study | Medical research
A daily dose of aspirin can considerably reduce the risk of returning colorectal after surgery, according to a major trial in the protective effects of daily analgesics.
Swedish researchers have found that people who took a low daily dose of aspirin after withdrawing their tumor were half as likely to have their return from cancer over the next three years as patients who took a placebo.
The test involved cancer patients whose tumors transported specific genetic mutations which make them sensitive to the anti -cancer properties of aspirin. About 40% of patients with colorectal cancer have such mutations.
“I think that will change clinical practice,” said Professor Anna Martling, who led the Alascca trial at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. “If you had these changes, the risk of return from cancer has been reduced by more than 50%. It’s a huge effect. “
Nearly 2 million people receive a diagnosis of colorectal cancer each year worldwide, with more than 40,000 cases in the United Kingdom. Many have their tumors removed, but despite the progress of chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery, cancer can return if the cells are left.
Intestine cancer rates are increasing worldwide in people under the age of 50, and although the reasons are not clear, scientists suspect junk food, obesity, lack of physical activity and toxins produced by intestinal bacteria.
Previous trials have shown that aspirin can help prevent colorectal cancer in people at high risk due to hereditary conditions such as Lynch syndrome. But it was not clear if the drug reduced the chances of recurring cancer after surgery.
Martling and his colleagues recruited more than 3,500 patients who had had colorectal tumors removed from hospitals in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland. The genetic tests out of 2,980 of the patients found 1,103, or 37%, of mutations in genes that make up a biological route called PI3K, which is involved in colorectal cancer.
Patients with mutations were assigned to random to have 160 mg of aspirin per day or a placebo for three years after surgery. People under aspirin were 55% less likely to have the return of cancer than those of the placebo, showed the trial.
The drug seems to protect against cancer by attenuating inflammation, by interfering with the PI3K track and attenuating the activity of blood plates, which can surround tumor cells and effectively hide them from the patient’s immune system.
Martling said that the results highlighted the need to carry out genetic tests on all colorectal cancers so that patients who had to benefit from aspirin can receive the medication. “It is a widely available drug that is extremely cheap,” she said.
Aspirin has been on the market for over a century, but taking the long -term medication has risks. In the trial, four patients had “severe undesirable events” potentially related to aspirin, including an allergic reaction, gastrointestinal bleeding and bleeding on the brain. Four patients died in both arms of the test, with a death perhaps caused by aspirin. Details are published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Dr. Catherine Elliott, research director at Cancer Research UK, said: “Cases of cancer saves lives and finding new ways to do so is the key to our efforts to beat cancer. There is growing evidence that in certain groups of people, low -dose aspirin can provide protection against intestinal cancer.
“The CAPP3 trial funded by Cancer Research UK has shown a similar effect in people living with Lynch syndrome, a hereditary disease that increases the risk of intestine and other types of cancer.
“We need higher and high quality studies like CAPP3 and this recent research to confirm who would benefit the most aspirin to help them live longer, better, without fear of cancer.”
