Aspirin in the treatment of cancer
Researchers at the University of Cardiff, working under the guidance of Professor Peter Elwood, conducted a systematic analysis of the results of 71 clinical trials and concluded that the use of aspirin has a pronounced positive effect on the condition of patients with malignant diseases.
In total, the analysis analyzed information on the survival of 120,000 cancer patients who took aspirin, as well as 400,000 patients who did not take this drug. Almost half of the studies included in the analysis were conducted with patients with bowel cancer, while most of the remaining ones involved patients with breast and prostate cancer. Only a very small number of studies have dealt with less common types of cancer, but in general, the data collected indicate that the benefits of aspirin can extend to all oncological diseases.
According to the authors' most important conclusion, at any time after the diagnosis of certain types of cancer was confirmed, the proportion of surviving patients was 20-30% higher among patients taking aspirin. Taking aspirin was also associated with significantly less pronounced cancer metastasis in other parts of the body.
So, according to the results of one of the studies involving patients with bowel cancer, against the background of taking aspirin, the prognosis for a non-diabetic man aged about 65 years is similar to the prognosis for a non-aspirin man 5 years younger. For a woman of the same age suffering from colon cancer, adding aspirin to the therapy protocol brings her prognosis closer to that of a woman whose age is 4 years younger.
According to Professor Elwood, the preventive effect of small doses of aspirin in relation to heart diseases, stroke and cancer has long been proven (the use of aspirin for the prevention of cardiovascular diseases has recently been questioned), but recently there is evidence that this widely used drug may be useful in the treatment of malignant tumors.
At the same time, it should be remembered that all this data is very limited. Firstly, they were obtained when conducting observational studies involving patients who took aspirin not for cancer treatment, and not when conducting randomized trials aimed at studying the relationship between aspirin and tumors.
Secondly, these data are not always unambiguous and in a number of studies the beneficial effects of aspirin have not been identified. Therefore, there is a need to obtain additional evidence. To date, several new randomized trials have already been planned, but the first results will not be received until several years later.
It should also be noted that the researchers carefully analyzed the relationship between aspirin intake and bleeding. They requested information about bleeding from the authors of all 71 research reports and received responses from 31 authors.
According to the data obtained, serious gastric bleeding developed only in a very small number of patients. Among them, the proportion of aspirin-taking patients was comparable to the proportion of non-aspirin-taking patients who developed spontaneous gastric bleeding for other reasons. In two studies, a very small number of fatal gastric bleeding was recorded, however, in this case, the probability of this did not depend on taking aspirin.
The authors note that, in any case, patients with oncological diseases should have access to all currently available information, as well as receive advice from their attending physician, which will allow them to make informed decisions about the relationship between the risks and benefits of taking low doses of aspirin. In addition, patients should be persuasively invited to participate in new randomized trials, the results of which are necessary to obtain final conclusions.
Article by Peter C. Elwood et al. Systematic review update of observational studies further supports aspirin role in cancer treatment: time to share evidence and decision-making with patients? published in the journal Plos One Medicine.
Evgenia Ryabtseva, portal "Eternal Youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru based on the materials of Cardiff University: Could aspirin play a role in treatment of cancer?