英国癌症研究会的一项研究报告说，在40岁至50岁期间服用主要用于止痛和治疗心脏病的药物阿司匹林，可降低日后罹患癌症的风险，但目前尚不能建议将该药物作为预防癌症的药物长期服用。
研究人员说，在通常的癌症高发年龄段之前连续服用阿司匹林，10年后该药物预防癌症的效果达到最佳。癌症研究会流行病学中心的杰克·库济克教授指出，可导致癌症的一些身体损伤通常在45岁左右显现，因此在40多岁时服用阿司匹林较好，在这个时期服用阿司匹林面临的副作用也比在15年至20年后服用要小得多。
研究显示，阿司匹林可抑制引发炎症的蛋白质的作用，在几种类型的癌症中，这类蛋白质的水平通常都很高。以往的研究已证实，服用阿司匹林可降低罹患肠癌、乳腺癌等类型癌症的风险。研究人员指出，阿司匹林可能增加溃疡和内出血的风险。常见类型的癌症如前列腺癌、乳腺癌、肺癌和肠癌等一般在60岁后出现，而这样的年龄正是阿司匹林造成内出血风险最高的时候。
库济克说，在建议将阿司匹林作为预防癌症的药物长期服用前，还有许多问题有待回答，比如，如何更好地判断哪些人患癌症的风险较高，以及阿司匹林对哪些人的副作用较小。此外，尚不清楚低剂量的阿司匹林是否具有目前使用的每天300毫克的常规剂量同样的预防癌症的效果。
英国心脏病基金会的埃伦·梅森说，目前阿司匹林造成内出血的风险大于预防癌症的好处。
上述研究报告刊登在最新一期《柳叶刀—肿瘤学》（The Lancet Oncology）杂志上。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推荐原始出处：
The Lancet Oncology，Volume 10, Issue 5, Pages 501 - 507，Jack Cuzick，Michael Thun
Aspirin and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for cancer prevention: an international consensus statement
Prof Jack Cuzick PhD a , Florian Otto MD b c, Prof John A Baron MD d, Prof Powel H Brown MD e, Prof John Burn PhD f, Peter Greenwald MD g, Prof Janusz Jankowski MD h i, Prof Carlo La Vecchia MD j, Prof Frank Meyskens MD k, Hans J?rg Senn MD b c, Prof Michael Thun MD l
Summary
Evidence clearly shows a chemopreventive effect for aspirin and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) on colorectal cancer and probably other cancer types; however, data on the risk—benefit profile for cancer prevention are insufficient and no definitive recommendations can be made. Aspirin has emerged as the most likely NSAID for use in chemoprevention because of its known cardiovascular benefit and available safety and efficacy data. Other traditional NSAIDs, particularly sulindac, and selective COX-2 inhibitors are now given to patients at high risk of colorectal cancer, although these drugs do not provide cardioprotection. More studies of aspirin and cancer prevention are needed to define the lowest effective dose, the age at which to initiate therapy, the optimum treatment duration, and the subpopulations for which the benefits of chemoprevention outweigh the risks of adverse side-effects. Although it might be possible to answer some of these questions with longer follow-up of existing clinical trials, randomised controlled trials with new study designs will be needed. Future projects should investigate the effects of aspirin treatment on multiple organ systems. Cancers of interest are colorectal, breast, prostate, lung, stomach, and oesophageal. The main side-effect of aspirin is peptic ulcers; therefore coadministration of aspirin with a proton-pump inhibitor is an attractive option and is under investigation in the AspECT trial.
