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Using aspirin to prevent and treat cancer

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Abstract

This review will discuss evidence that aspirin possesses anticancer activity. Long-term observational retrospective studies on nurses and health professionals demonstrated that regular aspirin users had a significantly lower incidence of colorectal cancer (RCT). Prospective studies on patients with a high risk of developing colorectal polyps/cancer confirmed that aspirin use significantly lowered colorectal dysplasia. Numerous observational studies focused on the use of aspirin in a broad range of cancers demonstrating a consistent 20–30% preventive effect on cancer incidence and mortality. Random Controlled Trials provided conflicting results on the benefit of aspirin in preventing CRC. Based on the age, weight/body size of the subjects for reasons still being explored. Studies on rats/mice further demonstrated that treatment of animals with aspirin where colon cancer was induced chemically or genetically (APCMin mice) reduced colonic dysplasia and polyp formation. Aspirin treatment was also effective at reducing the growth of cancer cells transplanted into normal/immunocompromised mice, suggesting that aspirin may be effective in treating different cancers. This possibility is also supported in clinical studies that aspirin use pre- and postcancer diagnosis significantly reduced the metastatic spread of cancer and increased patient survival. Lastly, the importance of the antiplatelet actions of aspirin in the drug’s anticancer activity and specifically cancer metastatic spread is discussed and the current controversy related to the conflicting recommendations of the USPSTF over the past five years on the use of aspirin to prevent CRC.

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As this Commentary is based upon publications readily available in the public domain, no new datasets were generated or analyzed in the current study.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported in part by NIH grants R42CA171408 and R21182798

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Office of Extramural Research,National Institutes of Health, R21182798, Lenard M. Lichtenberger

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  1. Professor Emeritus of Integrative Biology & Pharmacology, Department of Integrative Biology & Pharmacology, McGovern Medical School at UT Health, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, 6431 Fannin Street, Houston, TX, 77025, USA

    Lenard M. Lichtenberger

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Correspondence to Lenard M. Lichtenberger.

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Dr. Lichtenberger is a co-founder of and shareholder in PLx Pharma Inc. that is developing a phosphatidylcholine (PC)-associated aspirin and related PC-NSAIDs for cardiovascular and other potential NSAID therapeutic indication.

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Lichtenberger, L.M. Using aspirin to prevent and treat cancer. Inflammopharmacol 32, 903–908 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10787-023-01346-2

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