Increased risks of mortality restricted to aspirin use after the diagnosis of prostate cancer
TUESDAY, April 14, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Aspirin use does not appear to reduce the risk of mortality associated with prostate cancer, according to research published in the April issue of The Journal of Urology.
Jonathan Assayag, M.D., of the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal, and colleagues followed a cohort of 11,779 men, diagnosed with nonmetastatic prostate cancer between 1998 and 2009, until 2012. The associations of aspirin use with prostate cancer mortality and all-cause mortality were assessed.
The researchers found that, at a mean follow-up of 5.4 years, post-diagnostic use of aspirin was associated with increased risks of prostate cancer mortality (hazard ratio [HR], 1.46; 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 1.29 to 1.65) and all-cause mortality (HR, 1.37; 95 percent CI, 1.26 to 1.50). Further analysis showed that the risk of prostate cancer mortality was increased in patients initiating aspirin use after the diagnosis of prostate cancer (HR, 1.84; 95 percent CI, 1.59 to 2.12), but not in those who already were using aspirin before the diagnosis (HR, 0.97; 95 percent CI, 0.81 to 1.16). A similar pattern was observed for increased risk of all-cause mortality associated with post-diagnostic aspirin use (HR, 1.70; 95 percent CI, 1.53 to 1.88), but not pre-diagnostic aspirin use (HR, 0.98; 95 percent CI, 0.87 to 1.18).
“The post-diagnostic use of aspirin is not associated with a decreased risk of prostate cancer outcomes,” the authors write. “Increased risks were restricted to patients initiating these drugs after their diagnosis, suggesting a non-causal association.”
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