FRIDAY, July 20, 2018 -- One low-dose aspirin a day could help women avoid ovarian cancer or boost their survival should it develop, two new studies suggest.
In fact, daily low-dose aspirin -- the type many older women take to help their hearts -- was tied to a 10 percent reduction in developing ovarian cancer. It was also tied to as much as a 30 percent improvement in survival for ovarian cancer patients, the researchers said.
Kramer wasn't involved in the new studies, and said that
Ovarian cancer is the fifth leading cancer killer of women, largely because it is too often detected too late.
According to the researchers, there's increasing evidence that inflammation plays a role in the development of cancer and can worsen outcomes. Medications, such as aspirin and non-aspirin nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs -- including ibuprofen (Motrin, Advil) or naproxen (Aleve) -- have been shown to lower the risk of certain types of cancers, most notably colon cancer.
But do these drugs have a role to play against ovarian tumors?
To find out, researchers from the U.S. National Cancer Institute and the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Fla., pooled data from 13 studies from around the world. The studies included more than 750,000 women and asked them about their use of aspirin and NSAIDs. The researchers then tracked these women to see who developed ovarian cancer -- more than 3,500 women did.
According to the report published Wednesday in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, taking daily aspirin reduced the risk of ovarian cancer by 10 percent.
In a second study, researchers from the University of Hawaii in Honolulu and the Moffitt Cancer Center used the Nurses' Health Studies to collect data on nearly 1,000 women diagnosed with ovarian cancer.
The investigators found that women who used aspirin and non-aspirin NSAIDs after being diagnosed with ovarian cancer experienced as much as a 30 percent improvement in survival.
The results of the study were published in the journal The Lancet Oncology.
Both studies relied on retrospective, observational data, so they were unable to confirm a cause-and-effect relationship, only an association.
Still, the evidence for an effect does seem to be there, said Dr. Adi Davidov, who directs gynecology at Staten Island University Hospital in New York City.
He called the results
Kramer added that
More information
For more on ovarian cancer, visit the American Cancer Society.
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