A daily dose of aspirin may give women modest protection against the most common type of breast cancer. Aspirin is a common anti-inflammatory painkiller that can be used to relieve symptoms of arthritis and prevent second heart attacks and other ailments. Previous research has indicated it also may protect against colorectal cancer. A number of previous studies have also looked at the effect of aspirin on breast cancer, yielding inconsistent results. Some of the earlier work looked only at aspirin's effect on overall breast cancer without breaking it down by types of the disease. Researchers in America studied 127,383 women aged between 51 and 72 years from around the United States who were cancer-free when the study began. About 18 per cent of the women were daily aspirin users. They were tracked for seven years and about 4,500 of them developed breast cancer. It was found that women who took aspirin daily cut their risk of developing oestrogen receptor-positive breast cancer by 16 per cent. Oestrogen receptor-positive breast cancer is fuelled by oestrogen and aspirin may interfere with this hormone's activity. The study did not find any relationship between aspirin and the less-common oestrogen receptor-negative breast cancer. It also did not find any protective effect in women who took aspirin less than daily. The finding reinforced earlier research indicating regular use of aspirin might reduce the risk of so-called oestrogen receptor-positive breast cancer, which makes up about three quarters of breast cancer cases. However, aspirin can cause serious side effects in some people including ulcers and bleeding. And a woman should talk to her doctor before starting any new regimen, and weigh the pros and cons of starting a new treatment.
Breast Cancer Research,
April 2008