Patients with prostate cancer who use anticoagulants that include aspirin can reduce their disease-specific mortality by almost 60%, according to a study that will be presented at the upcoming American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) meeting.
For the study, researchers used the Cancer of the Prostate Strategic Urological Research Endeavor (CapSURE) database to analyze 5,295 men who had localized disease, reportedly used medication, and were treated with surgery or primary radiation therapy.
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The study results indicated that patients with high-risk prostate cancer had an 80% lower risk of disease-specific mortality if they used anticoagulants. Disease-specific mortality was 1% at 7 years and 4% at 10 years among anticoagulant users compared with 4% and 10% in the control group. When high-risk patients were analyzed by baseline clinical and tumor characteristics, prostate cancer-specific mortality was 2% and 4% at 7 and 10 years in the anticoagulant group compared with 8% and 22% in the control group. Researchers found significant improvement in survival for intermediate-risk patients as well.
Patients on aspirin alone had a prostate cancer-specific mortality of 1% at 7 years and 2% at 10 years. Those who used a combination of aspirin and another anticoagulant had a prostate cancer-specific mortality of 0% at 7 years and 5% at 10 years. Those who used another anticoagulant without aspirin had a prostate cancer-specific mortality of 2% and 7% at 7 and 10 years, respectively. ■
