This common household medicine cuts colorectal cancer recurrence in half for some patients: study

A common over-the-counter medication could significantly reduce the risk of colorectal cancer coming back.In a Swedish study, a low dose of aspirin was shown to slash recurrence in half for patients with colon and rectal cancer whose tumors had a specific type of genetic mutation.Researchers at Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital followed more than 3,500 cancer patients from 33 hospitals in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland, according to a press release.All patients had undergone surgery to remove their tumors.Among those who had a particular gene mutation in the PIK3 signaling pathway, half of them received 160 milligrams of aspirin daily and the other half received a placebo.After a three-year period, the risk of cancer recurrence was reduced by 55% in those who took the aspirin compared with the placebo group.“The ALASCCA trial shows for the first time in a randomized setting that low-dose aspirin significantly reduces recurrence in colorectal cancer patients with somatic PI3K pathway alterations,” study author Anna Martling, M.D., Ph.D., professor at the Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, Karolinska Institutet, and senior consultant surgeon at Karolinska University Hospital, told Fox News Digital.“This applies to more than one-third of all patients with resected colorectal cancer.”The effect was stronger in women, which warrants further investigation, according to Martling.The findings were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.Aspirin is a drug that is readily available globally and extremely inexpensive compared to many modern cancer drugs, Martling noted.Intended to relieve pain, fever and inflammation, aspirin is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID).

Low doses of the medication are also used to prevent blood clots.This research confirms what prior observational studies have suggested, this time in a randomized study.Dr.Marc Siegel, Fox News senior medical analyst, was not involved in t...