Low Doses of Aspirin Prevents Breast Cancer from Turning Deadly

Low doses of the painkiller aspirin can prevent the progression of a kind of breast cancer, according to a new study.

Researchers from the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Kansas City, Mo., and the University of Kansas Medical Center found that low doses of aspirin led to a decrease in the growth of tumor cell lines in the lab and stopped the cancer from spreading in mice models.

The drug stops the breast cancer cells from assuming a resistant form, making them vulnerable to treatment. Women who take aspirin were known to have a lower chance of developing aggressive breast tumor. However, this relationship was never understood before.

"If you don't target the stemness, it is known you will not get any effect. It will relapse," said Sushanta Banerjee, director of the cancer research unit and a professor at the University of Kansas and a senior of the study.

In the study, aspirin was found to be effective in preventing a rare, but aggressive, form of breast cancer called triple-negative breast cancer from spreading, according to a news release.

Previous research has shown that aspirin can lower the risk of colorectal cancer. The Harvard Gazette had recently reported that a daily dose of aspirin can extend the lives of people who have been diagnosed with a certain kind of colorectal cancer. A study published in the Lancet last year had said that people who are genetically susceptible to cancer (where the cancer runs in the family) can reduce their risk of the cancer by using 600 mg of aspirin per day for 25 months.

Another study published in Gastroenterology in 2008 had said that men can lower the risk of colorectal cancer by using aspirin continuously for six years with about 14 tablets per week, a really high dose that may lead to other health problems.

Banerjee said that aspirin's ability to attack multiple metabolic pathways makes it an effective drug against cancers.

"Cancer is not a single-gene disease. Multiple genes are involved," he said.

The study was presented Sunday, April 21, at the annual meeting of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.