One of the world’s most ubiquitous and pedestrian drugs — aspirin — may cut the risk of dying for men who have prostate cancer that has not yet spread beyond the gland, a new study suggests.
In looking at the records of more than 5,000 men with prostate cancer, 2,000 of whom were taking aspirin or another blood-thinning drug, researchers presenting at the annual meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) in San Diego report that the risk of dying from the cancer was reduced by more than half.
“We show that patients taking anticoagulant [blood thinning] medication had better outcomes with regards to prostate cancer death and that this benefit was most prominent in patients who had high-risk disease,” said study lead author Dr. Kevin Choe, a radiation oncologist with the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas. High-risk tumors are more aggressive and thus more likely to eventually kill the patient.
One of the world’s most ubiquitous and pedestrian drugs — aspirin — may cut the risk of dying for men who have prostate cancer that has not yet spread beyond the gland, a new study suggests.
In looking at the records of more than 5,000 men with prostate cancer, 2,000 of whom were taking aspirin or another blood-thinning drug, researchers presenting at the annual meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) in San Diego report that the risk of dying from the cancer was reduced by more than half.
“We show that patients taking anticoagulant [blood thinning] medication had better outcomes with regards to prostate cancer death and that this benefit was most prominent in patients who had high-risk disease,” said study lead author Dr. Kevin Choe, a radiation oncologist with the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas. High-risk tumors are more aggressive and thus more likely to eventually kill the patient.