Risk of prostate cancer mortality reduced with regular aspirin use after diagnosis
TUESDAY, Jan. 5, 2016 (HealthDay News) — For men with prostate cancer, regular aspirin use after diagnosis is associated with reduced risk for developing lethal prostate cancer, according to a study scheduled to be presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual Genitourinary Cancers Symposium, held from Jan. 7 to 9 in San Francisco.
Christopher Brian Allard, M.D., from Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, and colleagues analyzed data from 22,071 men enrolled in the Physicians’ Health Study and followed from 1982 to 2009. The authors assessed the correlation between regular aspirin intake (more than three tablets per week) and lethal prostate cancer.
The researchers found that 3,193 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer over 27 years of follow-up, of whom 403 developed lethal prostate cancer (metastatic disease or death from prostate cancer). Regular aspirin users had decreased multivariate-adjusted risks for lethal prostate cancer (hazard ratio, 0.76). The protective effect was seen for recent regular use (within 12 months), with the effects decreasing with time since last regular use. Among men with prostate cancer, there was a decreased risk of prostate cancer mortality with regular aspirin use after diagnosis (hazard ratio, 0.61), while no measureable benefit was seen for pre-diagnostic use.
“It is premature to recommend aspirin for prevention of lethal prostate cancer, but men with prostate cancer who may already benefit from aspirin’s cardiovascular effects could have one more reason to consider regular aspirin use,” Allard said in a statement.
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