Feb 10
26
Regular Aspirin Intake May Improve Breast Cancer Survival Odds
Apparently, aspirin, that cheap little pill that has fallen our of favor as a pain reliever of choice, but now has many other favorably viewed health benefits for your heart purportedly, may actually help you survive and avoid another recurrence of breast cancer if you are a breast cancer survivor. The study that was carried out was the first of it’s kind directly aimed at looking at how aspirin intake on a regular basis may help or hinder breast cancer patients. I’m not sure why this study started, or what the basis is for aspirin being a potential breast cancer deterrent though.
The study has spanned over thirty years, and involved nurses who had a wide span of health issues, so the study was multi pronged. What happened is that, sort of accidentally, they noticed a correlation between women who took aspirin for heart health and also as a preventive measure against stroke, since aspirin helps to thin the blood and prevent these problems which are caused by thickened blood, but also happened to have had breast cancer, had a higher survival rate, and less of a recurrence rate for their breast cancer, if they took aspirin several days a week.
However, if you are not a person who likes to take aspirin, or perhaps, like many other people, it upsets your stomach, there were similar effects observed with the same family of pain relievers called NSAIDS, non steroidal anti inflammatories, but there was not enough data on these to actually make any conclusions as to whether they had the same extent of benefit as aspirin for breast cancer patients. Also, you have to consider that this study was carried out over several years, most of which aspirin was still the popular choice for preventive measures against heart attacks and strokes.
Who knows, it may be prudent to take aspirin if you are prone to heart diseasea and stroke in your family and you have also been a breast cancer survivor, however, they are careful to point out that you should not take it regularly without talking to your doc first, since it can cause stomach bleeding, and also you usually should not take it in combo with chemotherapy or cancer treatment because it may have adverse side effects.
