Aspirin a day cuts risk of common breast cancer

Apr 30 2008

Scientists in the U.S. say an aspirin a day may afford women some protection against the most common type of breast cancer, estrogen receptor or ER-positive breast cancer.

The researchers from the National Cancer Institute, which is part of the National Institutes of Health, have found that women who took aspirin daily cut their risk of developing this type of breast cancer by 16 percent.

Earlier research has indicated that the regular use of aspirin might reduce the risk of ER-positive breast cancer, which account for around three quarters of all breast cancer cases.

ER-positive breast cancer is fueled by estrogen and it is thought that aspirin may interfere with the hormone's behaviour.

The team led by Dr. Gretchen Gierach say though the risk reduction is small, as ER-positive breast cancers are the more common types, it could have potentially a big public health impact.

The study involved around 127,000 women aged 51 to 72 from across the U.S. who were cancer-free when the study began; the women were tracked for seven years and about 4,500 of them developed breast cancer.

Of the group about 18 percent of the women were daily aspirin users and while the researchers did not find any relationship between aspirin and the less-common estrogen receptor-negative breast cancer, it also did not find any protective effect in women who took aspirin less than daily.

The research is the latest to suggest aspirin offers a range of health benefits apart from relieving headaches and body aches and reducing fevers....it is a common anti-inflammatory painkiller that can be used to relieve symptoms of arthritis and prevent second heart attacks and other ailments.

Other research has also suggested that it may protect against colorectal cancer.

According to Dr. Gierach other research has looked at aspirin and breast cancer with inconsistent results but many looked only at aspirin's effect on overall breast cancer rather than breaking it down by types of the disease.

In 2004 a Columbia University study found that women who took aspirin regularly had a modestly lower risk for estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer and Gierach says their findings are consistent with those findings for aspirin.

Aspirin belongs to a class of medicines known as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and while the researchers found that NSAID use generally had no affect on overall susceptibility to breast cancer, daily doses of aspirin resulted in a 16% reduction in risk for oestrogen-positive breast cancers.

The researchers do however warn that aspirin can cause serious side effects in some people including ulcers and bleeding and woman need to discuss with their doctor about adopting any new drug regimen.

The study is published in BioMed Central's open-access journal Breast Cancer Research.