Aspirin may decrease the risk for developing high-grade prostate cancer

the Oncology Nurse Advisor take:

According to new findings presented at the 13th Annual American Association for Cancer Research International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research in New Orleans, Louisiana, the use of aspirin and other other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) were associated with a decreased risk for developing an aggressive form of prostate cancer in patients who had a negative biopsy despite an increased prostate specific antigen (PSA).

The researchers used patients from the REDUCE trial, which studied if dutasteride, a 5-alpha reductase inhibitor, lowers the risk for developing prostate cancer.

Of the 6,390 participants with a PSA between 2.5 ng/mL and 10 ng/mL and a negative biopsy prior to the study, 50% were aspirin/NSAID nonusers, 21% were aspirin users, 18% were NSAID users, and 11% were users of both drugs. They found that aspirin and/or NSAID use decreased the risk for developing prostate cancer by 14%, and after adjusting for confounding factors, 13%.

Furthermore, they found that aspirin and/or NSAID use lowered the risk of high-grade disease by 17%. No link was observed with low-grade prostate cancer. Results were similar among patients from different continents.