A study by Professor John Baron and colleagues from Dartmouth Medical School in Lebanon, New Hampshire, found that low-dose aspirin taken daily reduced the risk of recurrent colorectal adenomas by 19 per cent.

The study involved 1,121 patients who had had at least one adenoma removed within the three months preceding the study. They were randomly assigned to one of three groups, taking either 80mg or 325mg of aspirin per day, or a placebo, for 34 months on average.

Compared with the placebo group, patients taking the lower aspirin dose reduced their risk of recurrent adenomas by 19 per cent. Patients who took standard size aspirin (325mg) had a 4 per cent reduction in risk.

Prof Baron and colleagues also found that low-dose aspirin reduced the risk of more aggressive types of adenomas by 40 per cent.

However, the researchers say it is too early to start prescribing daily aspirin for colorectal adenomas and warn people not to self-prescribe due to the increased risk of internal bleeding associated with even small doses of aspirin.

Prof Baron told delegates at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in San Francisco they had tested the two doses because they reflect amounts often used for heart disease prevention.

“We wanted to be consistent in our study to avoid the possibility of conflicting recommendations for these two health issues at a future date,” he said.

Dr Mary Berrington, science information manager at Cancer Research UK, says, “These results are encouraging and add to the growing body of evidence that the use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as aspirin can help reduce the incidence of bowel polyps.”

Cancer Research UK is running a study of a specially modified form of aspirin and of folic acid, to see whether this combination is as, or more, effective than aspirin alone in reducing the risk of further polyps, Dr Berrington says.

Source: American Association for Cancer Research
© Health Media Ltd 2002
http://www.health-news.co.uk