Aspirin May Protect Against Cancer
Preliminary research presented this week at the American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting in Los Angeles suggests that controlling inflammation–the same bodily process that can underlie aches and pains–may be important in preventing and treating cancer. When the body suspects attack by a virus or bacteria, for example, the damaged tissue responds by releasing chemicals–such as histamine, bradykinin, and serotonin–that trigger swelling. White blood cells are drawn to the area to engulf the foreign invaders. Though the mechanism isn't fully understood, chronic inflammation may create an environment where cancer can flourish.
Specific anti-inflammatories–aspirin and inhaled steroids–may offer an especially protective benefit. Using the Iowa Women's Health Study, Aditya Bardia, an internal medicine resident at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Rochester, Minn., analyzed 22,507 postmenopausal women's use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and the incidence of–or death from–cancer. Women who said in the 1992 survey that they used aspirin once per week or more (as opposed to never taking aspirin) were 16 percent less likely to have developed any type of cancer 12 years later, compared with women who used nonaspirin NSAIDs. Women who regularly took aspirin were 13 percent less likely to have died of cancer than those who regularly took nonaspirin NSAIDs. Aspirin-popping smokers also reaped the benefit, but the association was stronger in women who had quit or had never smoked.
"Cancer is related to inflammation," says Bardia, and "[t]his study does suggest aspirin might have anticancer effects." But it doesn't mean women should necessarily stop taking other NSAIDs in favor of aspirin, he adds, since more studies are needed. Bardia's research may support a study published earlier this year that suggests aspirin could have a protective benefit against dying from cancer for older women; the benefit was not seen until after 10 to 20 years of regular use.
Other research presented at the AACR annual meeting suggests that cancer patients who also have asthma might be at higher risk of a spread to the lungs–but that corticosteroid inhalants may offer protection. Researchers at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Scottsdale, Ariz., found that asthmatic mice were four times as likely to have their cancer metastasize in their lungs as mice who breathed the equivalent of a human corticosteroid inhaler used for mild to severe asthma. They also found that, among breast cancer patients whose cancer had invaded their lungs, 14 percent to 16 percent were asthmatics, about twice the national average. Anna Taranova, lead researcher and senior research fellow specializing in pulmonology, thinks the findings suggest that more aggressively treating asthma in cancer patients is in order.