2 articles on aspirin and colon/breast cancer
1. looked at 5 trials using aspirin, at least 75mg/d, to decrease vasc events, with 6.5 yrs followup. Many old studies suggested dec in colon ca with asa or nsaids, most with positive results. This study of 17K pts found 36% dec risk of distant mets overall in pts with cancer, with the vast majority of effect in adenoca -- 48% dec risk of metastases in those with adenoca. Esp effective in those without mets at diagnosis (50% decrease). Essentially all of the graphs show continuing divergence of curves for the first approx 8 years, then plateauing, for lung, bone, brain, and other mets. The total number of cancers detected and elligible for analysis was 775. (they do not give absolute risk reductions, but to my simplistic analysis, about 5% of pts had cancer, about 50% reduction, so on the order of 2.5% of population with benefit). Those on lower dose aspirin did the best. For the most common adenocarcinomas (esp those without mets already), the results were consistent (colore