Aspirin found to boost survival rate in cancer patients in new study

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Aspirin found to boostsurvival rate in cancer patients in new study

A researchhas revealed that taking the over-the-counter painkiller aspirin has potentialbenefits that outweigh the side effects. Researchers at Cardiff Universityreviewed the earlier studies of aspirin and cancer and published the findingsin the journal Open Biology.

As per TimesUK, they found direct evidence that patients who took aspirin survived longerand also presented the biological mechanisms that might explain the effect.These include “reductions by aspirin in cancer-related inflammation,abnormal clotting and abnormal blood vessel growth, and enhancement in cellularrepair”.

Theresearchers said that several studies suggest that aspirin could boost survivalchances by about 20 per cent across different cancers. Some studies also pointout a reduction of about a third in the spread of cancer.

However,they stressed the importance of further evidence since different trials threwup varied results. They said that there “appears to be an impressive harmonybetween the biological effects of aspirin on mechanisms relevant to cancer, andthe effects of aspirin on clinical outcomes in cancer”.Going by theresults, they have deemed aspirin as a "relatively safe drug",especially among cancer patients.

Sam Godfrey,head of research information at Cancer Research UK, told Times UK, “Thisreview examines what we know so far about the fascinating effect that aspirinhas on the biology of cancer and how it might be helping to increase survivaland prevent cancer from spreading to other parts of the body. But we still needmore clinical research to establish how effective aspirin is, what patientswill benefit from taking the drug and how much they should take and for howlong."

“To helpanswer some of these questions, Cancer Research UK is funding Add-Aspirin, theworld’s largest clinical trial studying if aspirin can prevent certain types ofcancer from coming back.” Around 11,000 patients from the UK, Ireland and India are expected toparticipate in the new trial. These patients would have undergone treatment forearly-stage cancer to see whether regular aspirin use can prevent recurrence ordeath.