Aspirin Reduces Risk of Prostate Cancer

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While aspirin is known to be helpful against pain and fever, a new study has found that it also is beneficial in the fight against prostate cancer, by slowing down the progressive development of the disease and reducing the risks of men dying from it.

However, this finding was only observed in men who were already taking the drug on a regular basis.

“It is premature to recommend aspirin for prevention of lethal prostate cancer, but men with prostate cancer who may already benefit from aspirin’s cardiovascular effects could have one more reason to consider regular aspirin use,” lead study author Christopher Brian Allard, MD, Urologic Oncology Fellow at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, said in a press release.

The study, which will be presented during the upcoming 2016 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium, is the first to specifically zero in on the possible role of aspirin in the prevention of lethal cancer.

The researchers looked at data from more than 22,000 men enrolled in the Physicians' Health Study. It was found that in over 27 years of following the men up, 3,193 were diagnosed with prostate cancer. Of those diagnosed with the disease, 403 were considered to be lethal prostate cancer.

After taking into consideration the differences in age, race, body mass index and smoking status, the researchers found that men who were not diagnosed with prostate cancer had a 24 percent lowered risk of developing lethal prostate cancer when they regularly take aspirin.

Regular aspiring use among those who were diagnosed with prostate cancer was also associated with a 39 percent reduced likelihood of dying from the disease.

On the other side, however, aspirin use before prostate cancer diagnosis appeared to have no measurable benefit, nor did it affect the likelihood of being diagnosed with total prostate cancer, high-grade prostate cancer, or locally advanced prostate cancer.

Despite the findings, Allard suggested that this study does not mean that men should regularly take aspirin for the sole purpose of preventing prostate cancer from developing, reports MedPage Today.

"More work is needed to identify particular subsets of men most likely to benefit from aspirin and to determine the optimal aspirin dose,” said Allard. “Men should always consult their physician before considering aspirin use."

“We think that aspirin probably prevents progression of prostate cancer to metastases,” said Dr. Allard. Metastasis is the process wherein a disease such as cancer is spreading to another part in the body, says the American Cancer Society.

Read the abstract here.