Study: Aspirin cuts cancer risk for some

Combined news services

LONDON -- People with a genetic condition that puts them at increased risk of colon cancer may lower their chance of developing the disease by taking daily aspirin, a study suggests.

The finding, however, doesn't apply to the general public, because aspirin can have side effects such as gastrointestinal bleeding.

The 861 people in the British study, which was published Friday in the journal Lancet, had Lynch syndrome, a rare, inherited disorder that puts them at high risk for cancers including those of the colon. The condition accounts for about 3 percent to 5 percent of colon cancer cases.

Previous research had suggested that aspirin could help prevent colon cancer in that group.

In the latest study, people began a two-year course of either 600 milligrams a day of aspirin or a placebo between 1999 and 2005. An analysis in 2007 found no difference in cancer rates between the groups. But it turned out the effect was delayed and in 2010 there was a clear divergence, with 19 new bowel cancers among those on aspirin and 34 in the placebo arm.

What is more, among the patients who stuck to the full two-year regimen of pill-taking -- some 60 percent of the total -- the effects were more pronounced, and strongly statistically significant, with a 63 percent reduction in bowel cancer cases from 23 in the placebo group versus 10 in the aspirin group.

Rates of side effects like bleeding and ulcers in the stomach were similar in both groups.

"This is good news for a very specific population," said Asad Umar, a cancer prevention expert at the U.S. National Cancer Institute who was not linked to the study.