Aspirin cuts cancer rates in people with hereditary risk by more than half

Research provides proof that taking a regular dose of aspirin reduces the long-term risk of cancer in people with a family history of the disease by around 60 per cent.

Researchers at Rigshospitalet, Hvidovre Hospital and Copenhagen University have taken part in a large-scale international collaboration, led by researchers at the Universities of Newcastle and Leeds, whose work is recently published in The Lancet. (See link below).

Evidence of the benefits of aspirin has been accumulating for over 20 years but these are the first results from a randomised controlled trial assessing the effect of aspirin on cancer. Late last year an analysis of people who had taken part in the early aspirin trials to prevent heart attacks and strokes showed that in subsequent years they developed fewer cancers. The missing piece of the jigsaw was a randomised trial specifically looking at its effect on cancer.

The study - focusing on people with Lynch syndrome, an inherited genetic disorder which affects genes responsible for detecting and repairing damage in the DNA - involved scientists and clinicians from 43 centres in 16 countries followed nearly 1,000 patients, in some cases for over 10 years.

For further information:
Professor, MD Anne-Marie Gerdes, Department of Clinical Genetics, Rigshospitalet
Direct phone: +45 35454889

Reference: Long-term effect of aspiring on cancer risk in carriers of hereditary colorectal cancer: an analysis from the CAPP2 randomised controlled trial

Published October 28, 2011, The Lancet.

Read the official press release