Cancer Treatment Archives

By James Gallagher Health reporter, BBC News

A daily dose of aspirin should be given to people at high risk of bowel cancer, say scientists.

Two pills a day for two years reduced the incidence of bowel cancer by 63% in a group of 861 at-risk patients, a study reported in The Lancet said.

Newcastle University’s Prof Sir John Burn, who led the study, said the evidence “seems overwhelmingly strong”.

Other experts said the findings added to a growing body of proof that aspirin could be used in the fight on cancer.

The study was conducted on 861 patients with Lynch syndrome, which affects one in every 1,000 people.

They struggle to detect and repair damaged DNA which means they are more likely to develop a range of cancers including those of the bowel, womb and stomach.

‘Good deal’

When looking at all patients in the trial, those in the group given 600 milligrams of aspirin every day developed 19 tumours compared to 34 tumours in the other “control” group, a reduction of 44%.

When the researchers looked at just those patients who took the medication for at least two years the reduction was 63%.

There was also an effect on other cancers linked to Lynch syndrome, which fell by half in the treatment group.

Prof Sir John Burn, from Newcastle University, said there were 30,000 adults in the UK with Lynch syndrome.

If all were given the treatment he said it would prevent 10,000 cancers over 30 years and he speculated that this could possibly prevent 1,000 deaths from the disease.

However, there would also be side effects.

“If we can prevent 10,000 cancers in return for 1,000 ulcers and 100 strokes, in most people’s minds that’s a good deal,” he said.

“People who’ve got a clear family history of, particularly, bowel cancer should seriously consider adding low dose aspirin to their routine and particularly those people who’ve got a genetic predisposition.”

Aspirin is already well known to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke in high risk patients.

Other studies over the past two decades have suggested the pain killer reduced cancer risk, but this was the first randomised control trial, specifically for aspirin in cancer, to prove it.

In 2010, a study suggested patients given aspirin had a 25% lower risk of death during that trial.

Prof Peter Rothwell, from Oxford University, who conducted that study said the latest research “certainly helps to build a consistent picture, all pointing in the same direction that there is a link with cancer”.

Cancer Research UK’s Prof Chris Paraskeva said: “This adds to the growing body of evidence showing the importance of aspirin, and aspirin-like drugs, in the fight against cancer.”

‘Balanced argument’

One of the questions asked by the research into aspirin was whether healthy people with no family risks should take the drug.

The lower the risk of heart attack or cancer, the lower the benefit of taking aspirin, yet there are still potentially deadly side effects.

Sir John said that it was a “finely balanced argument” and that he decided the risks were worth it for him.

“I think where we’re headed for is people that are in their 50s and 60s would look very seriously at adding a low dose aspirin to their daily routine because it’s giving protection against cancer, heart attack and stroke.

“But if they do that they’ve got to have their eyes wide open. They will increase their risk of ulcers and gastrointestinal bleeds and very rarely they will have a stroke caused by the aspirin.”

Each day around 125 women are diagnosed with breast cancer, but are they all getting the same chances?

In this week’s Scrubbing Up, biochemist Abi Ajose-Adeogun from Better Days Cancer Care – a cancer charity for African Caribbean women – and its founder, Marina Raime, argue that black women are getting a raw deal.

They say black women with breast cancer suffer from higher death rates and that research carried out mainly on white women can produce skewed data.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer affecting women in the UK with approximately 40,000 new cases diagnosed each year.

For many years the “face of breast cancer” has been that of white middle class women, who have been used to illustrate posters and be in adverts.

The lack of any other ethnic image has led to the perception, by many, that other ethnic groups particularly black women are not at significant risk of developing breast cancer.

“Black women develop breast cancer on average 10 to 20 years younger”

And this emphasis on white women may have cost lives.

Research has continued to focus primarily on white women, leaving unearthed for many years the effects of breast cancer on different ethnic groups.

Only in the last few years have studies demonstrated that there are significant differences in the biology and epidemiology of breast cancer in black women.

But the lack of focus on this area has meant that the outcome for black women diagnosed with breast cancer in the UK is worse than their white counterparts leading to an inequality in survival rates.

In the UK, only a handful of studies have been conducted looking at black women and breast cancer.

These studies have confirmed the results of the vast number of studies conducted in the US on African-American women.

They demonstrated that black women develop breast cancer on average 10-20 years younger than white women.

In addition to this, a significant number of black women develop a more aggressive form of breast cancer. The upside for black women is that they are less at risk of developing breast cancer but for those that do develop breast cancer the outlook is worse than their white counterparts.

These differences – the younger age of onset and the more aggressive nature of the cancer – can reduce the chances of survival. And to make matters worse many of the younger women tend to be misdiagnosed and/or diagnosed late.

In addition, as a result of research being based on white women the breast cancer screening age was set at 50, which, based on the younger age of onset of disease, is too high for black women.

Also the misconception by black women themselves that they are not at risk of developing breast cancer also leads to delayed diagnosis.

Added to this the cancer is often more aggressive in black women – a type of breast cancer called triple negative breast, which is little understood or researched – further hampering survival chances.

Now Cancer Research UK and Breakthrough Breast Cancer are studying it.

But unless we want more unnecessary deaths we must correct the balance by lowering the screening age for black women; ensuring more research is conducted; introducing health education programmes to raise awareness of the signs, symptoms and risk factors of breast cancer; and supporting programmes to eliminate the barriers that black women face when accessing breast health services

Tag: Cancer Treatment

Daily Aspirin Blocks Bowel Cancer

Black women getting a raw deal in cancer treatment