A new study from the Department of Surgery at Leiden University in the Netherlands has found that patients who regularly take aspirin after surgery for colon cancer have a 50% lower risk of dying. because cancer is less likely to spread.
This new study made it possible to follow nearly 1000 patients with colorectal cancer who were operated on between 2002 and 2008. The majority of these patients had colon cancer diagnosed late, in stage III. That is, at a stage when the cancer is likely to metastasize.
Aspirin would stop cancer cells from migrating
Of the 999 patients, 182 (18.2%) were taking aspirin regularly. Of this group, 69 people (38%) died. In the group of 817 patients who did not take aspirin, 396 people (48.5%) died.
The only downside: the advantage of aspirin has only been observed in patients whose tumor was associated with the production of a certain protein called “HLA class 1 antigen”.
“We believe that aspirin prevents cancer cells from migrating to other parts of the body where they would turn into new cancer,” said Dr Gerrit Jan Liefers, who led the study. The latter believes that, taken in low doses daily, aspirin could help prevent the spread of the tumor in patients with early cancer. He therefore pleads for the initiation of an aspirin treatment as soon as the diagnosis is made, and well before the surgery.
Colorectal cancer affecting the colon or rectum is the 3rd most common in women and the 2nd in men. There are around 40,000 new cases of colorectal cancer each year in France. It is both the second deadliest cancer but it is also a cancer that is cured in 90% of cases, when detected early.