A new study has discovered that aspirin can prevent the recurrence of certain types of intestinal cancer, reducing half -risk in some patients.
Foto aspirin: Adevărul (archive)
Intestinal cancer, which also includes rectal and colon cancer, is one of the most aggressive and difficult to treat forms of the disease, with high rates of secondary incidents frequently diagnosed in other areas of the body, a phenomenon known as metastases.
Every year, almost two million people around the world are diagnosed with colorectal cancer, and of these cases, between 20 and 40% develop metastases, writes Dailly Mail.
In the new clinical study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, Swedish researchers at Karolinska Institute and Karolinska University Hospital analyzed how people with a specific genetic mutation react to a regular analgesic.
They specifically analyzed people with a mutation in the Pik3 signal path – a “the instruction network“Incorporated biological that indicates to cells how to react to certain stress factors and control how cells grow and divide.
When this signaling path works defective or defective, it can cause cells to continue to divide, which can lead to uncontrolled cell reproduction and cancer development, especially in the intestine.
They recruited over 3,500 patients with intestinal cancer of 33 hospitals in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland, and the tests revealed that about 40% of them had the Pik3 mutation.
These patients were then randomized and, in the three years that followed the cancer removal operations, they were prescribed either 160 mg of aspirin a day or a placebo.
For patients with genetic mutation in Pik3 who have taken aspirin, the risk of metastases has been reduced by 55% compared to the placebo group.
Anna Martling, a professor at the Molecular Medicine and Surgery Department of the Karolinska Institute and Senior Consultant surgeon at the Karolinska University Hospital, who led the study, said aspirin can be used to reduce both the suffering and the costs of cancer treatment.
She said: “Aspirin is an easily available medicine globally and extremely cheap compared to many modern cancer drugs, which is very positive. Aspirin is tested here in a completely new context, as a precision medicine treatment. This is a clear example of how we can use genetic information to customize treatment and at the same time save both resources and suffering. “
The new study was conducted after previous observational studies have suggested that aspirin can reduce the risk of certain types of cancer.
It was also issued that this could reduce the risk of postoperative recurrence in patients with Pik3 mutation.
This was the first randomized clinical study that confirmed this association, and the researchers believe that it is very likely to be related to the ability of aspirin to “Reduces inflammation and making the internal environment less favorable for cancer cells. ”
Professor Martling added: “Although we do not fully understand all the molecular links, the results strongly support the biological reason and suggest that the treatment can be particularly effective in subgroups of genetically defined patients. ”
Each year, about 44,000 cases of intestinal cancer are diagnosed in the UK, and in the United States about 130,000.
The disease kills almost 17,000 British every year, and the number of deaths reaches about 50,000 in America.
In general, it is estimated that just over half of patients with intestinal cancer will be alive 10 years after diagnosis.
Aspirin is a drug that contains acetylsalicylic acid and is used to relieve pain, fever and inflammation, its effects are usually felt in 30 minutes.
It can also be used in small doses to prevent blood clots.
However, due to the frequent side effects, which include stomach problems, it is recommended that people with stomach ulcers, bleeding disorders or asthma avoid this medicine released without a prescription.
