The study revealed that aspirin can reduce the risk of developing liver cancer or dying from chronic liver disease by approximately 50 percent even if only taken monthly.
Researchers found that people who had taken aspirin at least once a month in the past year were 49 per cent less likely to develop the most common form of liver cancer compared with people who did not take aspirin. Additionally, they were 50 percent less likely to die from chronic liver disease in the next ten years.
The study consisted of 300,000 participants who were enrolled in the National Institutes of Health-AARP Diet and Health Study. Researchers gave them questionnaires to have them report on their use of aspirin and other NSAIDs over the previous 10 years. Their responses were then linked to databases that registered cancer cases and deaths during the following 10 years, showing that 250 people developed hepatocellular carcinoma (liver cancer) and 428 died from chronic liver disease during that time.
The research team was led by Dr. Vikrant V. Sahasrabuddhe, from the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics at the National Cancer Institute, who wrote about their findings in the current issue of JNCI:
“Aspirin, in particular, when used exclusively or with other non-aspirin NSAIDs showed a consistent protective effect related to both HCC [hepatocellular carcinoma] incidence and CLD [chronic liver disease] mortality, regardless of the frequency or exclusivity of use.”
If confirmed, these associations with the use of aspirin “might open new vistas for chemoprevention of HCC and CLD,” they conclude.
“This is the first large-scale, population-based evidence for reduced risks of liver cancer incidence and liver disease mortality associated with the use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs,” Sahasrabuddhe wrote in the journal.
Hepatocellular carcinoma is cancer of the liver, and it occurs mainly in people with chronic liver disease. Some studies suggest the cancer could be a result of the chronic inflammation in liver disease affecting cellular processes.
Source: ED Treatment India
