Daily Dose Of Aspirin Could Cut Cancer Risk

A daily dose of aspirin can cut the risk of dying from cancer by more than a third, according to a new study. 

Researchers from the University of Oxford say the results are so dramatic people should consider taking a low-dose aspirin once a day from the age of 45.

The doctors studied trials involving more than 25,000 people, who were taking 75mg of aspirin a day - a quarter of the normal pain-killing dose.
Five years after starting treatment, cancer deaths fall by 34%.

Professor Peter Rothwell, who led the research, said the benefits far outweigh the risk of bleeding in the stomach.

He told Sky News: "If you wanted to reduce your risk of cancer, then the sensible time to think about taking aspirin would be starting in your mid-40s.

"That's when the risk of cancer goes up very steeply, but the risk of bleeding is still relatively low - and continuing to take it until you're 70."

At that age, most cancers would have been prevented, but the risk of gastric bleeding increases, he said.

The research, published in The Lancet medical journal, shows that aspirin reduces deaths from prostate cancer by 10%, lung cancer by 30% and gullet cancer by 60%.

Professor Peter Elwood, from the University of Cardiff, has studied aspirin for many years.

He said the drug - first derived from willow bark - was highly potent.

"Here's a naturally occurring substance which affects basic mechanisms within the cell at the initiation of cancer.

"So it's going to have effects on many cancers, if not all cancers, right at the beginning. It is prevention," he added.

The risk of a stomach bleeding while taking aspirin is around one in a thousand each year.

But Professor Elwood said taking aspirin with a glass of milk can reduce the damage to the stomach.