Aspirin and the treatment of cancer | Letter

Information on low-dose aspirin as an additional treatment of cancer should be made widely available to patients, write Professor Peter Elwood, Janet Pickering and Dr Gareth Morgan of Cardiff University

A recent review of the medical literature shows that low-dose aspirin taken by patients with cancer (Bitter pill: is aspirin really a wonder drug?, G2, 24 January) is associated with a reduction in cancer deaths, and a reduction in cancer spread (metastases). Over 70 studies have been published, together including 120,000 cancer patients taking aspirin and over 400,000 cancer patients not taking aspirin. A meta-analysis shows a 24% reduction in cancer deaths and a 19% reduction in deaths from all causes in patients taking aspirin. That is: at any time after a diagnosis of cancer, about 19% more patients taking aspirin are alive, compared with patients not taking aspirin.

An author of each report was contacted and asked about bleeding in their patients: 31 replies were received and only one author reported an excess (11%) in the number of patients taking aspirin who had had a bleed, compared with patients not taking aspirin.

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