{"id":5817,"date":"2012-10-30T10:55:00","date_gmt":"2012-10-30T10:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aspree.org\/aus\/?p=5817"},"modified":"2021-08-24T01:28:35","modified_gmt":"2021-08-24T01:28:35","slug":"colorectal-cancer-and-aspirin-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aspree.org\/aus\/colorectal-cancer-and-aspirin-research\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorectal cancer and aspirin research"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Aspirin may block the growth of colorectal tumours with a specific genetic mutation<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Researchers affiliated with the Harvard Medical School reported that aspirin was associated with a prolonged life of patients with tumours that carried the mutated PIK3CA gene \u2013 97% of these people who commenced regular aspirin after diagnosis were alive after five years, compared to 74% who did not take aspirin.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wiki.cancer.org.au\/australia\/User:Finlay.macrae\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Professor Finlay Macrae<\/a>, Head of Colorectal Medicine and Genetics at The Royal Melbourne Hospital, said one of the most interesting aspects of this study was that it looked at the effects of aspirin in a chemotherapy setting.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-5818\" src=\"https:\/\/aspree.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/04\/Prof-FM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"374\" height=\"249\" \/>\r\n<figcaption><em>Above: Prof Finlay Macrae cautioned that the research was interesting, but not conclusive.<\/em><\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cThe pathways and targets in established cancer are being better defined,\u201d said Prof Macrae, who <a href=\"\/aus\/about-us\/\">works<\/a> on the cancer component of the largest primary prevention aspirin study in older adults, ASPREE (ASPirin in Reducing Events in the Elderly).<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cAs we discover more genetic markers such as the PIK3CA mutation, doctors will be able to target therapies specific to the type of tumour,&#8221; said Prof Macrae.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>He cautioned that this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nejm.org\/doi\/full\/10.1056\/NEJMoa1207756\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">colorectal cancer study<\/a> provided preliminary data only \u2013 there were only 66 people with the genetic mutation in the study, the dose of aspirin was not clearly defined and any potential benefit of aspirin must be weighed against risks, such as bleeding.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cThis research demonstrates an additional link between aspirin and bowel cancer, which supports the inclusion of colorectal cancer survivors into large randomised studies such as ASPREE,\u201d said Prof Macrae.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cASPREE will have the critical mass to establish the association between colorectal cancer and aspirin but most importantly, it will weigh the benefits versus the risks.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Colorectal cancer is the second most common newly diagnosed cancer in Australia. According to Bowel Cancer Australia, if bowel cancer is detected early, the chance of survival beyond five years was around 90%.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Researchers found that aspirin taken after diagnosis was not shown to reduce tumour growth in other types of colorectal cancer without the PIK3CA mutation.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Approximately 15-20% of people diagnosed with colorectal cancer are estimated to have mutated PIK3CA colorectal tumours.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>The research was published in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nejm.org\/doi\/full\/10.1056\/nejmoa1207756#:~:text=Among%20patients%20with%20mutated%2DPIK3CA,rank%20test)%20and%20overall%20survival%20(\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">New England Journal of Medicine<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A colorectal medicine expert and investigator to the ASPREE trial responds to a new study into the effect of aspirin on mutated-PIK3CA colorectal cancers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6058,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"1200","footnotes":""},"categories":[17,18,16],"tags":[28,47],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aspree.org\/aus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5817"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aspree.org\/aus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aspree.org\/aus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aspree.org\/aus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aspree.org\/aus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5817"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/aspree.org\/aus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5817\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8537,"href":"https:\/\/aspree.org\/aus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5817\/revisions\/8537"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aspree.org\/aus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aspree.org\/aus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aspree.org\/aus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aspree.org\/aus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}