{"id":5873,"date":"2012-03-22T09:23:00","date_gmt":"2012-03-22T09:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aspree.org\/aus\/?p=5873"},"modified":"2021-08-24T02:17:43","modified_gmt":"2021-08-24T02:17:43","slug":"aspirin-and-cancer-prevention-suggested-but-needs-proof","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aspree.org\/aus\/aspirin-and-cancer-prevention-suggested-but-needs-proof\/","title":{"rendered":"Aspirin and cancer prevention suggested, but needs proof"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Underscores the need for a large clinical trial in older adults, says ASPREE Principal Investigator<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><strong><em>ANNOUNCEMENT<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Research findings by Rothwell et al, (two published in \u2018The Lancet\u2019 and one in \u2018The Lancet Oncology\u2019) to hit the media today are suggesting that daily aspirin can be used to help prevent and possibly treat cancer.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><strong>Need for a clinical trial<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Professor John McNeil, <a href=\"\/aus\/about-us\/\">Principal Investigator<\/a> of the ASPREE trial in Australia said the research highlights the need for a clinical aspirin trial in older adults because:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n<li>The new research findings\u00a0<strong>suggest\u00a0<\/strong>that overall, aspirin might help prevent and delay the spread of some cancers in the body.<\/li>\r\n<li>The papers\u00a0<strong>do not<\/strong>\u00a0tell us whether aspirin reduces the incidence and spread of cancer in\u00a0<strong>older people<\/strong>\u00a0(or in fact\u00a0<strong>any<\/strong>\u00a0particular age group), although ASPREE will help answer this.<\/li>\r\n<li>The papers are based on a\u00a0<strong>meta-analysis<\/strong>, which means an analysis of 51<strong>\u00a0different\u00a0<\/strong>studies published between 1968 and 2010. These participants\u00a0<strong>varied<\/strong>\u00a0in age, health, the dose of aspirin and the duration of the studies.<\/li>\r\n<li>The\u00a0<strong>average age<\/strong>\u00a0in one study was<strong>\u00a062<\/strong>\u00a0and unknown in other papers.<\/li>\r\n<li>Of 25,000 people studied, the actual number of cancer deaths prevented was<strong>\u00a0relatively small<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 12 deaths per 1000 placebo versus 9 per 1000 in aspirin groups.<\/li>\r\n<li>The majority of participants included in the studies were\u00a0<strong>male.<\/strong><\/li>\r\n<li>The only side-effect of aspirin that this research focused on was \u00a0\u2018major\u2019 bleeding outside the brain (in other words gastro-intestinal bleeding) and\u00a0<strong>not<\/strong>\u00a0other potential side effects, such as anaemia, which may affect an older person\u2019s quality of life.<\/li>\r\n<li>None of the studies investigated aspirin and<strong>\u00a0dementia.<\/strong><\/li>\r\n<li>ASPREE is one of the\u00a0<strong>first\u00a0<\/strong>large international trials to\u00a0<strong>establish\u00a0<\/strong>whether the\u00a0<strong>benefits<\/strong>\u00a0of aspirin (including cancer prevention)\u00a0<strong>outweigh<\/strong>\u00a0the risks specifically in people aged 70 and over.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\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-1919\" src=\"https:\/\/aspree.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/09\/asprinedit.jpg\" alt=\"White tablets spill out of the clear glass bottle laying on a white surface\" width=\"1099\" height=\"733\" srcset=\"https:\/\/aspree.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/09\/asprinedit.jpg 1099w, https:\/\/aspree.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/09\/asprinedit-480x320.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) 1099px, 100vw\" \/><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><strong>Benefits must be weighed against risks<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Prof McNeil said the research, which was conducted by a team at the University of Oxford in the UK, was encouraging but urged caution.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>He said the effects of long-term aspirin use, which could increase the chance of internal bleeding in the stomach, intestines and brain, needed to be weighed against potential benefits, especially in older adults.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cKnowledge about whether aspirin should be used for prevention in the elderly will come only from clinical trials that measure all of the potentially positive and negative effects of the drug in that age group,\u201d Prof McNeil said.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cOnly ongoing research into the effects of aspirin across all ages and populations can give definitive answers as to aspirin\u2019s potential health benefits and its risks, including cancer.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>ASPREE is the largest public, primary prevention clinical trial of low-dose aspirin in older Australians and will follow the health and well-being of participants for five years in <a href=\"\/aus\/site-locations\/\">Victoria, Tasmania, SA, NSW and the ACT<\/a> and in the <a href=\"https:\/\/aspree.org\/usa\/site-locations\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">USA<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>The papers were called:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<ol>\r\n<li><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/books\/NBK91554\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Short-term effects of daily aspirin on cancer incidence, mortality, and non-vascular death: analysis of the time course of risks and benefits in 51 randomised controlled trials<\/a><\/em><\/li>\r\n<li><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/books\/NBK91694\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Effect of daily aspirin on risk of cancer metastasis: a study of incident cancers during randomised controlled trials<\/a><\/em><\/li>\r\n<li><em><a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/22440112\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Effects of regular aspirin on long-term cancer incidence and metastasis: a systematic comparison of evidence from observational studies versus randomised trials<\/a><\/em><\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>We encourage participants with concerns to please contact the ASPREE team on 1800 728 745 (toll free from a landline).<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><em>Updated 2.04.2021<\/em><\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Interpret with caution, until we know benefits and risks, says ASPREE Principal Investigator in response to Oxford University study into aspirin and cancer prevention<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4138,"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":[80,47],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aspree.org\/aus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5873"}],"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=5873"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/aspree.org\/aus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5873\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8554,"href":"https:\/\/aspree.org\/aus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5873\/revisions\/8554"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aspree.org\/aus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aspree.org\/aus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aspree.org\/aus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aspree.org\/aus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}