In a new study, researchers found that the benefits of daily aspirin may extend beyond heart health to colon cancer treatment.
They found aspirin appears to reduce tumor growth and inhibit the recurrence of the disease.
More research is needed to determine the right dosage of aspirin that can be used as a daily prophylactic without triggering dangerous side effects such as stomach and brain bleeds.
The research was conducted by a team at the City of Hope and elsewhere.
Some might say aspirin is a ‘miracle drug’ because of its potential to prevent diseases that result from chronic inflammation, such as cancer, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and arthritis.
The reason aspirin isn’t currently being used to prevent these diseases is that taking too much of any anti-inflammatory eats at the stomach’s mucus lining and causes gastrointestinal and other problems.
In the study, the team used mouse models and mathematical modeling to parallel the number of daily aspirin people in the U.S. and Europe are taking in clinical trials.
They tested three varying daily doses of aspirin in four colon cancer cell lines.
Then the researchers divided 432 mice into four groups: control, low-dose aspirin (15mg/kg), medium-dose aspirin (50mg/kg) and high-dose aspirin (100mg/kg) – the mouse equivalent of 100mg, 300mg and 600mg for humans.
They found that as the aspirin doses increased, the rate of cell death increased while the division rates of cells decreased, meaning tumor cells were more likely to die and not proliferate.
Moreover, they found that low-dose aspirin was especially effective in suppressing tumor growth in mice with more PIK3CA genes.
The mutated version of these genes has been linked to increased risk of certain cancers.
The researchers are now working with some of the people conducting those human clinical trials to analyze data and use mathematical modeling.
They hope soon to find the right amount of daily aspirin needed to treat and prevent colorectal cancer without causing scary side effects.
The lead author of the study is Ajay Goel, Ph.D., the chair of the Department of Molecular Diagnostics, Therapeutics and Translational Oncology.
The study is published in the journal Carcinogenesis.
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