A new study suggests that a low dose of aspirin may reduce a woman’s risk of colon cancer if taken long term.
Nancy Cook, lead author of the study and professor at Brigham & Women's Hospital, and her colleagues found out that those women who took 100 milligrams of aspirin every other day for a minimum of 10 years showed a reduced risk of up to 20 percent of developing colon cancer compared to those under placebo. The affectivity though will only manifest after 18 years.
This new conclusion succeeded a previous report that showed that aspirin was not able to help in cutting the risk of colon cancer even after 10 years of taking it. Cook wrote in the updated report that there were patients which showed improvement as soon as five or 10 years after their study.
The researchers analyzed the records of 34,000 of the original 42,000 women who participated in the previous study. These women were still taking aspirin even after the study. They found out that about 1.10 percent of those who continued to take aspirin in 16 years developed colon cancer while those under placebo had 1.40 percent reported cases. The researchers concluded that those who continue to take aspirin have a lower risk of about 20 percent compared to those who don’t.
The researchers also checked if the results will be the same for lung cancer or breast cancer in which they found no connection.
Cook admitted that they encountered a problem though which the patients need to consider if they would want to take aspirin as a way to reduce their risk to colon cancer. About 14 percent of the participants suffered from stomach bleeding while 17 percent had developed peptic ulcers.
The study was published on the July 15 issue of the medical journal Annals of Internal Medicine.
