According to a study, aspirin increases the risk of gastrointestinal bleeding in seniors with cancer. Thus, these people should avoid starting treatment with aspirin or risk seeing their disease accelerate.
In the past, several studies have found that taking aspirin can reduce the risk of developing cancer , especially colorectal cancer. Nevertheless, these studies mostly included middle-aged volunteers. As part of the ASPREE trial led by the Faculty of Medicine at Monash University (Australia) and the results of which were published in BMJ Journals on August 2, 2020, the researchers wanted to verify whether there were any similar observations in the elderly.
The trial involved no less than 19,114 participants residing in Australia and the United States. It was a follow-up of people aged over 70 for about five years. Among the volunteers, some ingested a daily dose of 100 mg of aspirin, and others a simple placebo. According to the results, 981 participants on aspirin and 952 others on placebo developed cancer during the study. Thus, there is at this level no significant difference regarding whether or not to take aspirin.
On the other hand, scientists have made a disturbing discovery . According to the results, taking aspirin is linked to a 19% greater risk of being diagnosed with metastasized cancer . There is also talk of a 22% greater risk in the case of a diagnosis of advanced cancer, sometimes up to stage 4.
According to the study leaders, deaths were particularly high among volunteers on aspirin who had been diagnosed with advanced cancer. In other words, it is possible that aspirin has an adverse effect on growth cancers in the elderly. Obviously, this implies that development is already underway. Thus, these results suggest greater caution in prescribing treatment in these people.
However, the study explains that this does not mean that people already on treatment from an earlier age should stop everything. Although this trial requires further research, the researchers have formulated a hypothesis. According to them, aspirin could act differently in the elderly at the cellular (or molecular) level.
Recall that in 2019, US researchers reported the first results of a very promising vaccine against colorectal cancer. This is a new treatment designed to train the immune system to recognize cancer cells.
