An international study has found that aspirin can reduce long-term obesity cancer risk in people with a family history of the disease suggesting that there could be a hope for overweight individuals to fend of cancer risk.
Published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology and carried out by researchers at Newcastle University and the University of Leeds, UK, the study found that obesity doubles the risk of bowel cancer in people with Lynch Syndrome. Lynch syndrome is an inherited genetic disorder which affects genes responsible for detecting and repairing damage in the DNA. According to statistics, around half of the Lynch syndrome patients develop cancer, mainly in the bowel and womb.
Through their study, researchers found that the risk of cancer could be counteracted by taking a regular dose of aspirin.
Professor Sir John Burn, professor of Clinical Genetics at Newcastle University who led the international research collaboration said that their finding is not only important for people with Lynch Syndrome, but is important for rest of the people too who are struggling with their weight and this suggests the extra cancer risk can be cancelled by taking an aspirin.
“This research adds to the growing body of evidence which links an increased inflammatory process to an increased risk of cancer. Obesity increases the inflammatory response. One explanation for our findings is that the aspirin may be supressing that inflammation which opens up new avenues of research into the cause of cancer.”
The randomised controlled trial is part of the CAPP 2 study involving scientists and clinicians from over 43 centres in 16 countries which followed nearly 1,000 patients with Lynch Syndrome, in some cases for over 10 years.
937 people began either taking two aspirins (600 mg) every day for two years or a placebo. When they were followed up ten years later, 55 had developed bowel cancers and those who were obese were more than twice as likely to develop this cancer – in fact 2.75 times as likely. Following up on patients who were taking two aspirins a day revealed that their risk was the same whether they were obese or not.
The trial was overseen by Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and funded by the UK Medical Research Council, Cancer Research UK, the European Union and Bayer Pharma.
Professor John Mathers, Professor of Human Nutrition at Newcastle University who led this part of the study said: “For those with Lynch Syndrome, we found that every unit of BMI above what is considered healthy increased the risk of bowel cancer by 7%. What is surprising is that even in people with a genetic predisposition for cancer, obesity is also a driver of the disease. Indeed, the obesity-associated risk was twice as great for people with Lynch Syndrome as for the general population.
“The lesson for all of us is that everyone should try to maintain a healthy weight and for those already obese the best thing is to lose weight. However, for many patients this can be very difficult so a simple aspirin may be able to help this group.”
Professor Tim Bishop from the University of Leeds who led on the statistics for the study added: “Our study suggests that the daily aspirin dose of 600 mg per day removed the majority of the increased risk associated with higher BMI. However, this needs to be shown in a further study to confirm the extent of the protective power of the aspirin with respect to BMI”.
However, Professor Burn advises: “Before anyone begins to take aspirin on a regular basis they should consult their doctor as aspirin is known to bring with it a risk of stomach complaints including ulcers.
“But if there is a strong family history of cancer then people may want to weigh up the cost-benefits particularly as these days drugs which block acid production in the stomach are available over the counter.”
The international team are now preparing a large-scale follow-up trial and want to recruit 3,000 people across the world to test the effect of different doses of aspirin. The trial will compare two aspirin a day with a range of lower doses to see if the protection offered is the same.
