2 Large Studies Differ on Value of Aspirin As Cancer Fighter

CHICAGO – Men who took aspirin over five years had a slightly lower risk for prostate cancer in a new study, but in another study, women who took low doses over 10 years didn’t reduce their cancer risk.

The conflicting results don’t help settle the debate about whether aspirin and similar anti-inflammatory medicines could be used to prevent cancer. Doctors familiar with the research think different study designs and aspirin doses explain the contrasting findings.

The Women’s Health Study, involving nearly 40,000 women, is among the longest aspirin-cancer studies to date and used doses a little higher than in baby aspirin, taken every other day and compared against dummy pills. It found no effect on lymphoma, colorectal, breast or several other cancers, although results for lung cancer were less conclusive.

In the men’s study, American Cancer Society researchers followed 70,144 men over nine years and asked about their use of aspirin and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAIDs. Men who took standard doses of those medicines daily for at least five years were about 18 percent less likely to get prostate cancer than men who used aspirin sporadically.

The women’s study appears in today’s Journal of the American Medical Association. The men’s study is in today’s Journal of the National Cancer Institute.