Taking aspirin on a daily basis may lower women’s risk of a particular type of breast cancer, according to results published in BioMed Central’s open access journal Breast Cancer Research. In this large study, aspirin use was linked to a small reduction in estrogen receptor-positive breast cancers. However, unlike in some previous research, aspirin and related painkillers were not found to reduce the total risk of breast cancer.

Around 75% of breast cancers are estrogen receptor-positive (ER+), which means the cancer cells have receptors for the female hormone estrogen on their surface. Estrogen helps the cancer cells grow, so drugs that block the action of estrogen are often used to treat ER+ cancer.

Until recently, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like aspirin and celecoxib (sold as Celebrex), were being hailed as promising cancer prevention drugs. However, the latest studies have concluded that in most cases the adverse side effect of these drugs -- including risk of cardiovascular and kidney disease -- outweigh the potential benefit.

However, certain NSAIDs may be better suited to treating cancer, in combination with standard therapies, rather than preventing it, according to new research by scientists at the University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine.

HOUSTON -- Many cancer patients who have heart attacks often are not treated with life saving aspirin given the belief in the medical community that they could experience lethal bleeding. Researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, however, say that notion is now proven wrong and that without aspirin, the majority of these patients will die.

Researchers say that their study, to be published in the February 1, 2007 issue of the journal Cancer and now available online, turns common medical assumptions upside down and will likely change medical practice for cancer patients. Because aspirin can thin blood and cancer patients experience low platelet counts and abnormal clotting, physicians view aspirin as a relative contraindication. Given that blood platelets are responsible for the clotting process, physicians do not eagerly prescribe aspirin as a standard treatment.

    A medium size clinical trial has shown that taking a daily aspirin (81mg) can substantially reduce the occurrence of advanced colorectal adenomas as well as a less but still significant reduction in non-advanced adenomas. One peculiar thing about the trial is that at a higher dose (325mg) of aspirin the benefit is not there. Also, it is known that this regime requires up to 10 years of daily aspirin to see an effect, and even then, once the aspirin stops there is no lingering protective effect. This 10 year treatment requirement may be a reason why this trial did not find a protection in using the higher dose since this particular trial went for 3 years. The following review provides excellent insight into not only colorectal cancer benefits but a general cancer chemopreventive (chemical protection) effect of aspirin.