Aspirin effective in cutting bowel cancer death risk
26 Apr 2012
Researchers in the Netherlands have found that bowel cancer patients who took the painkiller aspirin for at least nine months after diagnosis cut the risk of dying from the disease by 30 per cent.
The study also revealed that patients taking it for any length of time following diagnosis cut the odds by 23 per cent compared as against not taking it at all, according to the New York Daily News.
As many as 4,500 patients diagnosed underwent tests between 1998 and 2007.
According to the latest evidence, the drug not only reduced the risk of dying from cancer, but could also help eliminate chances of developing the disease in the first place.
A quarter of those tested were not aspirin users, while another quarter only took aspirin after diagnosis, and the remaining group took the drug both before and after developing cancer.
According to Dr Gerrit-Jan Liefers, from Leiden University Medical Centre, the team's findings could have profound implications for clinical practice. He added that the team had shown the therapeutic effect of a widely-available, familiar drug that cost mere pennies per day.
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