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Caroline McNeil, New Data on Aspirin and Colorectal Cancer Brings Calls for New Guidelines, More Research, JNCI: Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Volume 104, Issue 3, 8 February 2012, Pages 172–177, https://doi.org/10.1093/jnci/djs019
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Three large studies in the past 14 months have reopened a longstanding issue in colorectal cancer: Can aspirin prevent it? Or more precisely, is the evidence for preventive benefit in people at average risk strong enough to outweigh the known risks of regular aspirin use?
Up to now, the committees that draw up cancer prevention guidelines have concluded that the evidence for aspirin’s benefits was insufficient when weighed against the risk of gastrointestinal bleeding, a common side effect that can be severe; aspirin can also cause hemorrhagic stroke.
But the new studies, though not perfect, could tip the scales in favor of aspirin, say some experts. The accumulated data now “arguably support more general recommendations to consider aspirin for prevention of colorectal cancer in the context of individualized risk-benefit assessments,” wrote Andrew Chan, M.D. Harvard Medical School, Boston, and Scott Lippman, M.D. at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, in their Lancet editorial on December 17 th .
