Based on the findings of a recent study, taking on aspirin per day may just prevent the development of breast cancer. The study, published in the journal Laboratory Investigation, was carried out by research director of the Cancer Research Unit at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Kansas City, MO, Dr. Sushanta Banerjee, and her research team. The study demonstrated how low doses of aspirin obstructed breast cancer cells’ ability to renew. The researchers state that their findings recommend a daily dose of aspirin, which is a drug most commonly used to alleviate pain and avoid blood clots, to help prevent breast cancer development and recurrence in women.
Following skin cancer, breast cancer sits near the top of the list as the most common cancer that result in death for women in the United States. What’s more is this year, approximately 230,00 women in the U.S. alone will be diagnosed with breast cancer and it is more than likely that more than 40,000 will die of the disease. Yet this latest study that signals aspirin as a fighting cancer machine is not the first, nor the last of its kind. A study released in July 2014 tied frequent aspirin consumption to cutting down the risk of developing colon cancer in women. Furthermore, another study in 2014 from the University of Texas in Austin discovered that aspirin use may in fact cut breast cancer recurrence in overweight or obese women by half.
In terms of their own study, Banerjee and her team aimed to discover how aspirin could influence incubated breast cancer cells in petri dishes in addition to breast cancer tumors in mice models.
The team tested the incubated breast cancer cells in 96 different petri dishes. Each dish came into contact with several doses of acetylsalicylic acid, or aspirin. The researchers discovered that the aspirin eradicated a large sum of the breast cancer cells. Furthermore, the cells the aspirin couldn’t kill, removed their ability to regrow. The researchers then administered aspirin to mice with aggressive breast cancer tumors over a span of 15 days. The administered dose equated to 75 milligrams, which is considerably low. By the end of the 15 days, the researchers compared tumor sizes of the mice given aspirin and those that did not receive any aspirin. They found that the tumors of the mice that received aspirin were 47 percent smaller compared to those who didn’t receive any aspirin.
Banerjee and his team discovered aspirin’s ability to obstruct self-renewal activity of breast cancer cells, leading him to believe aspirin could serve as an effective prevention strategy against breast cancer.
“There are two parts here. We could give aspirin after chemotherapy to prevent relapse and keep the pressure on, which we saw was effective in both laboratory and the mouse model, and we could use it preventatively.”
However, Banerjee acknowledged the risks involved in taking daily doses of aspirin and therefore suggests individuals should speak with their doctors before committing to daily doses of aspirin.
