Beneficial for the heart? Risky for strokes … Good for fighting cancer mortality in people over 65 … The side effects of aspirin have always stirred medical research, even if it means sometimes being contradicted over time. Recently, researchers published a study in the journal Carcinogenesis which emphasizes that aspirin would limit the risk of recurrence of colon cancer.
The study was carried out on mice given different doses of aspirin by studying their cell proliferation. American researchers from the Department of Molecular Diagnostics, Therapeutics and Translational Oncology at the City of Hope Medical Center found that the more aspirin they received, the more their cells tended to die, not proliferate. This action applies in particular to cancer cells.
Aspirin, miracle drug?
Once again, research confirms that aspirin is useful in the prevention of diseases induced by chronic inflammation. This is the case of Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s or even as this result indicates, of cancers.
Having said that, aspirin is an anti-inflammatory. One of the first side effects of this type of medication on the digestive system is irritation of the lining. The drug could therefore be useful insofar as it would block the proliferation of cancer cells by killing them, but it must be handled with care so as not to damage the gastrointestinal tract too much. After this discovery, researchers are interested in finding the perfect dose to combine these two issues.
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