Colon Cancer - Aspirin May Prevent It!
Maybe it's the American love of red meat, maybe it's genetics. Either way you slice however, colon cancer (colon CA) is in the public eye as one the most common types of cancer in the U.S. today. With over 130,000 new cases identified each year, your chances are about 1 in 6, of getting the disease sometime during your life. If you have a primary relative, parent or sibling, with a hereditary form of colon cancer, your chances of getting colon CA is much higher. How much higher? In some cases, such as colon cancer associated with Lynch syndrome, the chances of developing hereditary colon cancer from a genetic donor parent is a whopping 90-100%! (Lynch syndrome is only associated with about 3-5% of all colon cancer however). So, now that we have a group of patients with a known level of cancer predictability, we have news of a miracle drug that can significantly lower the risk of developing colon cancer. This drug is known as acetylsalicylic acid, or plain old aspirin.
After testing and following an 1100 person test group of patients with Lynch syndrome, researchers came to the conclusion that there was indeed a significant long term drop in colon and endometrial CA. Half of the group was given a placebo, and the other half was given a daily dose of 600mg of aspirin. That's equivalent to two adult aspirin tablets. After about 2.5 years, the data showed no significant difference in the cancer rate, but after 4 years, there were only 6 cases of colon cancer in the aspirin group. That's in contrast to the 16 cases of persons with Lynch syndrome, that took the placebo, and developed colon cancer.
There is some thought that aspirin acts as a COX-2 inhibitor, which is a similar action in some non-steroidal anti-inflammatory pain medications. COX-2 is a co-enzyme found in high levels in tumors and is involved in cell growth and cell division. Therefore if we stunt the cancer cell growth and division, we stunt the development of tumors. There is still a lot of research and studies to do before your gastroenterologist or oncologist will recommend this regimen for you, but hey, its only aspirin. People with cardiovascular disease take it daily in small doses, (81mg). There is a higher risk of bruising and bleeding with daily aspirin as it causes the your blood platelets to not be as "sticky", but it just may be worth that risk. Who would have thought that this wonder drug invented in Germany in 1897 would have so many uses?
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