An Aspirin a Day Doubles the Cancer Survival Rate

Aspirin doubles cancer survival rate for people with gastrointestinal cancers that deal mainly with the esophagus, colon and rectum. The study taken by scientist from Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands, took data from 13,715 patients who were diagnosed with gastrointestinal cancer in 1998-2000. The study found that those of the patients who took 80-100 mg of aspirin a day were twice as likely to be alive after 4 years after than the patients who didn’t take the drug. They did factor in the differences such as gender, age, and stage of cancer.

The Leiden University Medical Center is working on testing it on cancerous tumors to see the effects of the aspirin. The University said-”Given that aspirin is a cheap, off-patent drug with relatively few side-effects, this will have a great impact on healthcare systems as well as patients.”  Some of the side effects of aspirin are- Fever for more than 3 days, coughing up blood, vomiting, nausea, stomach pain, swelling, hives, rash, fast heartbeat, fast breathing, clammy skin, ringing in the ears, and difficulty breathing.

Other studies are going on to see if there are any noticeable patterns with this treatment. This is the first time a study has assessed survival data by GI. Medical research is now trying to focus more on personalized medicine, but many personalized medicine and can be quite expensive, however with the aspirin it’s a cheap and easy option compared to chemo and other cancer treatments.  

It’s still unclear how the aspirin is working, but researchers are trying to figure that out.

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