Thanks for all your interesting recent contributions to our Hot Topics!
For those who didn't see the article, it has been recently reported in the media that a daily dose of aspirin can double the life expectancy of patients with cancers affecting the gastrointestinal tract
The comment below has been sent to the Daily Mail by Cancer Research UK in response to the article.
Dr Áine McCarthy, Cancer Research UK’s science information officer, said: “Aspirin is a familiar, cheap medicine and this study suggests it could help improve survival for patients with tumours in their digestive system if they take the drug after being diagnosed. More research will help us find which patients might benefit from this, and Cancer Research UK is also investing in a large clinical trial to test if aspirin can prevent cancer coming back. Even though aspirin is widely available, it can have serious side effects like internal bleeding, so cancer patients shouldn’t take it without talking to their doctor first
Recently there has been a lot of research regarding the interactions between cancer and inflammation, so far, the evidence suggest that chronic inflammation can be associated to a worse prognosis due to the microenvironment that is formed inside the tumor. Aspirin has been linked to a better prognosis in some cases, probably for it's anti-inflammatory properties, however the exact mechanism of communication and interaction between the immune response and the tumor tissue, remains unclear, so, it wouldn't be prudent to recommend this pill as a cancer treatment wonder to anyone
Hi Osorio .... what you have written is really interesting to me. I have breast cancer that has spread to my liver and other places. The last two PET/CT scans I have had, have shown 'cancer progression' in my lymph nodes around my liver - and now the celiac nodes. The chemo I am presently having causes huge gastro irritation and I have often wondered if it may be possible that the lymph nodes have enlarged due to the fact that my stomach and associated organs are so inflamed, rather than because they are diseased with cancer? It also makes sense to me that lymph nodes associated to a diseased liver would also be inflamed - a bit like the glands in your neck being up when you have a sore throat? Do you know how a radiologist would be able to tell if a node is enlarged through disease or inflammation without a biopsy?
What you say seems very feasible to me, in that Aspirin would possibly reduce inflammation and give the appearance/illusion on a scan that disease was diminishing.
I would also be interested to see what LUCIE or THE NURSES think?
Hi, well max56, in the matter of the biopsy, i am not really the person to ask, i am a researcher (biologist) and do not have the medical experience or qualifications to answer that kind of question, sorry.
About the Aspirin, i wasn't implying that the effect was an illusion. Since we don't understand exactly why some patients respond so well and we know so little about the very complex interaction between cancer and inflammation, it wouldn't be good idea to call it anything right now (within the context of cancer therapy), we just dont know at the moment.
Hector ...... No problem, thanks for answering anyway. I have just seen your 'Hi' post and want to say welcome to the forum and I hope your studies go well. All the best x
We don’t really have anything to add to what is stated in the press release that Lucie posted. The bottom line is that aspirin does look interesting in terms of both cancer treatment and prevention, but there isn’t enough evidence to recommend that people take it yet. And it can have side effects including bleeding, so it is important not to take any risks in taking it without medical advice. We have more information about it on our website here and for those that are interested some information on our science blog about research into aspirin and cancer here
