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Taking low-dose aspirin is associated with 20% reduction in cancer deaths

cardiff.ac.uk

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Re: Taking low-dose aspirin is associated with 20% reduction in cancer deaths

#61

Post by throwaway290 »

InSteady wrote: post #14
sdenton4 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also addressed in TFA, it turns out. GI symptoms are pretty mild in the universe of cancer drug side effects, and the aspirin slows metastatic cancer spread considerably, so seems like a no brainer.

It isn't a cancer drug, so that isn't a fair comparison. GI symptoms from eating more broccoli and not ever drinking are also pretty mild compared to cancer drugs. Aspirin appears to be a preventative according to some initial research. National cancer institute says even the most at-risk age group (age 60+) is still only has cancer rates of around 1 in 100. How long are you going to take low dose aspirin? Are GI sym…

> It doesn't mean start taking aspirin every day for the rest of your life at age 38 just to be on the safe side, however.

Younger people than that do get cancer and die from it. If it arrests tumour growth and even sometimes causes reduction and one is at risk, resisting aspirin treatment out of cargo cult common sense is a bad idea.

Re: Taking low-dose aspirin is associated with 20% reduction in cancer deaths

#63

Post by copperx »

InSteady wrote: post #14
sdenton4 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also addressed in TFA, it turns out. GI symptoms are pretty mild in the universe of cancer drug side effects, and the aspirin slows metastatic cancer spread considerably, so seems like a no brainer.

It isn't a cancer drug, so that isn't a fair comparison. GI symptoms from eating more broccoli and not ever drinking are also pretty mild compared to cancer drugs. Aspirin appears to be a preventative according to some initial research. National cancer institute says even the most at-risk age group (age 60+) is still only has cancer rates of around 1 in 100. How long are you going to take low dose aspirin? Are GI sym…

1 in 100 cancer odds is off by at least an order of magnitude. From the studies I've read, lifetime risk of cancer is about 1 in 3.

This should be used as an icebreaker in college. "Look to your left, then look to your right. One of you will die of cancer."

Re: Taking low-dose aspirin is associated with 20% reduction in cancer deaths

#65

Post by robocat »

Scoundreller wrote: post #47
mvkel wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Alcohol has a bunch of recent studies showing that no amount is good, and as little as two drinks per week yield measurable negative impacts.

what if I do all the other things that go along with drinking for health, like speak Italian or French while I drink?

First search hit:

  They report preventable deaths caused by alcohol is higher in France than anywhere else in Europe.
Speaking French doesn't appear to help you. Maybe Italian is better.

Re: Taking low-dose aspirin is associated with 20% reduction in cancer deaths

#67

Post by tagrun »

breadwinner wrote: post #34

This has to be balanced against this news: "Daily low dose aspirin increases brain bleeding risk by 38% in older adults." See: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/low-dose-aspirin-r...

It says in older adults.

This is a meta-study, touching on that "contrast" already: there is a subsection in the paper dedicated to this, where they claim that

"The major factor in cerebral bleeding however is hypertension, and in an RCT of aspirin based on more than 18,000 hypertensive patients—all of whom were receiving ‘optimal’ antihypertensive treatment—there were no additional cerebral bleeds in patients randomised to aspirin" (Refs 46 and 47).

which seems to be in contradiction with the article corresponding to the news you linked to: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle... and strangely doesn't cite or comment on Refs 46 and 47 from the paper of the main thread, possibly because they don't seem to be focusing on older adults.

There is also a subsection on gastrointestinal bleeding.

Intracranial bleeding isn't necessary something that cause permanent damage, or lethal by the way.

Re: Taking low-dose aspirin is associated with 20% reduction in cancer deaths

#68

Post by enasterosophes »

breadwinner wrote: post #34

This has to be balanced against this news: "Daily low dose aspirin increases brain bleeding risk by 38% in older adults." See: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/low-dose-aspirin-r...

Aspirin is also associated with gout. I'm not sure if the dosage required to worsen gout is lower than the dose discussed in the paper. I merely caution that anyone thinking about increasing their aspirin usage to prevent cancer should consult a GP first, since it's complicated, and anyone who has had gout probably doesn't want to increase their rate of flare ups.

Re: Taking low-dose aspirin is associated with 20% reduction in cancer deaths

#69

Post by Leary »

This is a meta analysis of observational studies. There's random controlled trial which showed all cause mortality was 14% higher for "healthy older adults who received daily aspirin than among those who received placebo"

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmoa1803955

Re: Taking low-dose aspirin is associated with 20% reduction in cancer deaths

#70

Post by Scoundreller »

robocat wrote: post #65
Scoundreller wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what if I do all the other things that go along with drinking for health, like speak Italian or French while I drink?

First search hit: They report preventable deaths caused by alcohol is higher in France than anywhere else in Europe. Speaking French doesn't appear to help you. Maybe Italian is better.

meh, I just care about all-cause mortality. I'll accept some preventable death risk if it's outweighed by non-preventable death risk improvement.

I think the French hit a good sweet spot between high alcohol consumption and high life expectancy. Quite a male-female disparity though. Maybe Irish do better at 0.2years reduction for an extra 0.4l of alcohol per year

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expe...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_alcohol_c...

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