UPDATE: Aspirin could cut colorectal cancer, study finds

A new study shows that low doses of aspirin taken to lower the risk of heart attacks and strokes can also lower the risk of colorectal cancer (colon cancer).

A team of researchers from Oxford University found it cut cases by a quarter and deaths by more than a third in a review of 14,000 patients.

For the study researchers reexamined data from four randomized trials, evaluating the ability of aspirin to prevent vascular disease and to find out aspirin’s effect on colorectal cancer.

Over a time frame of approximately 20 years, 391 of the trial participants, or 2.8%, developed bowel cancer. Aspirin was shown to reduce the risk of the disease by 24% and cut death rates by 35%.

Aspirin blocks the effects of proteins that help activate inflammation and are linked to a number of different types of cancer.

Previous studies have determined a daily dose of at least 500 milligrams of aspirin could prevent colon cancer, but the harmful effects of such a high dose outweighed the benefits. Now, researchers say a low dose, equivalent to a baby or regular aspirin, also appears to work.

But experts say aspirin’s side effects of bleeding and stomach problems are too troublesome for people who aren’t at high risk of the disease to start taking the drug for that reason alone.

Most colorectal cancers start as benign polyps and screening programmes reduce the incidence of bowel cancer by removing these early growths.

Colorectal cancer is the second most common cancer in developed countries, with approximately one million new cases and 600 000 deaths around the world annually.