Breast Cancer Survivors Taking Aspirin Experience Lower Death Risk
A recent study showed that breast cancer survivors taking aspirin may also experience a lower death risk from the disease. The said study was made by researchers from the Harvard Medical School and published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
The said study involved more than 4,000 nurses who took aspirin, mainly as a way to prevent heart disease. But this also seems to translate into a 50 percent lower risk of women dying from breast cancer and a 50 percent lower risk that the cancer would spread. This also seems to work even for those women who have been receiving treatment for breast cancer at its early stages. According to Dr. Michelle Holmes, lead author of the study, If these findings are confirmed in other clinical trials, taking aspirin may become another simple, low-cost and relatively safe tool to help women with breast cancer live longer, healthier lives.
Holmes and her team of researchers studied 4,164 female registered nurses who took part in the Nurses’ Health Study which involved an analysis of a variety of health issues. The study started in 1976 and looked into those nurses who took aspirin and then watching out for breast cancer and other causes of death until 2006. Over this span of time, around 341 nurses died of breast cancer.
The study showed that those who took aspirin for two to five days each week had a 60 percent reduced risk of their cancer spreading and had a 71 percent lower chance of dying from the said disease. Taking aspirin six to seven times a week lowered the risk of cancer spread by 43 percent and breast cancer death by 64 percent.
According to the same study, other drugs known as NSAID’s which include ibuprofen and naproxen may also have the same ability similar to aspirin in reducing breast cancer risks and death. But the researchers are not really sure on how these drugs do it based on current data. Further studies may be required to clearly show just how aspirin helps to reduce certain breast cancer risks and possibly other types of cancers as well.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35426947/ns/health-cancer
Tags: Aspirin, Breast, Cancer, Death, Experience, Lower, Risk, Survivors, Taking
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