‘Daily aspirin prevent breast, colon cancer’

AN aspirin a day could keep breast cancer at bay, according to the findings of a new study published in the journal Laboratory Investigation.

Mice with aggressive breast cancer given a daily low dose of aspirin had tumors 47 per cent smaller than those of a control group.

Conducted by Dr. Sushanta Banerjee, research director of the Cancer Research Unit at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Kansas City, MO, United States, and colleagues, the study revealed how low-dose aspirin impaired the ability of breast cancer cells to renew.

The researchers say their findings suggest a daily dose of aspirin – a medication commonly used to relieve pain and prevent blood clots – could prevent breast cancer development and recurrence in women.

After skin cancer, breast cancer is the most common cancer for women in the US. This year, it is estimated that more than 230,000 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer, and more than 40,000 will die from the disease.

Meanwhile, researchers analyzing breast cancer risk in postmenopausal women have reported that those who are overweight or obese have an increased risk of invasive breast cancer in comparison with women of normal weight.

Women in the study with a Body Mass Index (BMI) higher than 35 had a 58 per cent greater risk of invasive breast cancer than women with a BMI less than 25.

The study, published in JAMA Oncology, was conducted by Dr. Marian L. Neuhouser, of the Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center in Seattle, WA, United States, and coauthors.

While previous observational studies, meta-analyses and systematic reviews have associated obesity with increased breast cancer risk, researchers remain uncertain about the role of obesity in postmenopausal breast cancer.

Questions remain, write the study authors, “including whether obesity is associated with breast cancer characteristics, such as tumor hormone receptor status and stage at diagnosis, or whether use of postmenopausal hormone therapy (HT) modifies the obesity-breast cancer association, because both obesity and HT alter a woman’s hormone profile.”

This latest study is not the first to hail aspirin for its potential anticancer properties. In July 2014, Medical News Today reported on a study linking regular aspirin use to reduced risk of colon cancer in women, while a 2014 study from the University of Texas in Austin found regular aspirin use may halve breast cancer recurrence in overweight and obese women.

For their study, Dr. Banerjee and colleagues set out to invest§igate how aspirin would affect incubated breast cancer cells in laboratory dishes and breast cancer tumors in mouse models.