Rense: Daily Aspirin Use Linked with Pancreatic Cancer

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Daily Aspirin Use Linked With Pancreatic Cancer

By Maggie Fox

Health and Science Correspondent

10-27-3

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Women who take an aspirin a day -- which

millions do to prevent heart attack and stroke as well as to treat

headaches -- may raise their risk of getting deadly pancreatic

cancer, U.S. researchers said on Monday.

 

The surprising finding worried doctors, who say women will now have

to talk seriously with their physicians about the risk of taking a

daily aspirin.

 

Pancreatic cancer affects only 31,000 Americans a year, but it kills

virtually all its victims within three years.

 

The study of 88,000 nurses found that those who took two or more

aspirins a week for 20 years or more had a 58 percent higher risk of

pancreatic cancer.

 

" Apart from smoking, this one of the few risk factors that have been

identified for pancreatic cancer, " Dr. Eva Schernhammer of Harvard

Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, who led

the study, told a news conference.

 

" Initially we expected that aspirin would protect against pancreatic

cancer, especially since its preventive role in colorectal cancer

has been well documented. However, now it appears that we need to

examine the relationship more thoroughly, " Schernhammer added in a

statement.

 

" This finding does not mean that women should no longer use aspirin.

There are still important benefits to the drug; we also need other

large cohort studies to confirm our finding before we can draw any

conclusions. "

 

Schernhammer and colleagues presented their findings to a meeting in

Phoenix, Arizona, of the American Association for Cancer Research.

 

They studied 88,378 women taking part in a large and wide-ranging

study of nurses and their health.

 

Over 18 years, 161 of the nurses developed pancreatic cancer.

 

Those who took 14 tablets or more per week had an 86 percent greater

risk of pancreatic cancer than non-users. The nurses who took

between six and 13 tablets had a 41 percent higher risk, while those

who only took one to three aspirins a week had an 11 percent greater

risk.

 

The women who took the most aspirin said they were taking it not to

protect against heart disease, but because of headaches or other

aches and pains.

 

Even with the increased risk, heart disease is a much greater threat

to a woman's, or a man's, health. It is by far the biggest killer in

the United States and other developed nations. The American Heart

Association says cardiovascular disease killed more than 945,000

Americans in 2000.

 

Doctors do not clearly understand what causes pancreatic cancer, or

what makes it so deadly. Obesity is another risk factor, but

Schernhammer said her team's findings held regardless of a woman's

weight, whether she smoked and whether she had diabetes.

 

Schernhammer noted that one study showed that regular aspirin use

may cause pancreatitis -- an inflammation of the pancreas that can

sometimes lead to pancreatic cancer.

 

" There is urgent need to settle the biologic reasons for pancreatic

cancer, " she said.

 

 

 

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