Does aspirin use reduce the risk for cancer?

J Investig Med. 2017 Feb;65(2):391-392. doi: 10.1136/jim-2016-000275. Epub 2016 Oct 27.

Authors

Usman Iqbal^{1

2}, Hsuan-Chia Yang^{2

3}, Wen-Shan Jian^{2

4}, Yun Yen^{5

6}, Yu-Chuan Jack Li^{2

5

7}

Affiliations

¹ Masters Program in Global Health and Development Department, College of Public Health, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan.
² International Center for Health Information Technology, Taipei, Taiwan.
³ Institute of Biomedical Informatics, National Yang Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan.
⁴ School of Health Care Administration, College of Management, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan.
⁵ College of Medical Science and Technology, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan.
⁶ City of Hope, Duarte, California, USA.
⁷ Department of Dermatology, Wan Fang Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.

PMID: 27789660
DOI: 10.1136/jim-2016-000275

Abstract

Recently, studies have reported that aspirin has chemopreventive properties. In this study, we used the Taiwan NHI database, which covers a population of 23 million (99.99%) Taiwanese from 2001 to 2011. This was a case-control study which identified 601,733 patients using ICD-9-CM codes who were diagnosed with cancer. Each case with 4 eligible controls was matched for age, sex, and index date and adjusted for confounding factors. The observed overall cancer risk (adjusted OR (AOR), 0.95; 95% CI 0.94 to 0.96) reduced with aspirin use, specifically, colorectal (AOR, 0.97; 95% CI 0.94 to 0.99) and digestive system (AOR, 0.96; 95% CI 0.94 to 0.98) cancers. Findings from the Asian population would contribute to the discussion on aspirin's safety profile.

Keywords: Aspirin; Cancer; Carcinogenesis; Drug-Related Side Effects and Adverse Reactions; Drugs, Investigational.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adult
Aspirin / therapeutic use*
Female
Humans
Male
Neoplasms / epidemiology*
Risk Factors
Taiwan / epidemiology

Substances

Aspirin