Scientists have been conducting studies for years on the many beneficial uses of aspirin.  Aspirin is used to fight a multitude of aches and pains, such as headaches, muscle aches, and back pains.  It is also widely used to prevent heart attacks and strokes because of its blood thinning effects.

 Another beneficial use of aspirin may be for preventing colon cancer.  Taking aspirin regularly has been linked to a lower risk of developing colorectal cancer.  Researchers studied more than 600,000 adults in 1980 about their aspirin use. After six years passed, researchers found death rates from cancers of the digestive tract, including colorectal cancer, were about 40% lower among people who took aspirin 16 or more times a month.  There have been a multitude of other studies that have reached this same conclusion.  However, the evidence is still not strong enough in order for doctors to recommend aspirin to their colorectal patients especially because it can have some pretty nasty side effects when taken long term, such as ulcers and liver damage.

 More recently, Dr. Andrew Chan of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston conducted a study and found that aspirin increases the survival rate of people with colon cancer, especially if they had high levels of the enzyme COX-2 in their tumors.  The enzyme COX-2 is an inflammation-producing enzyme and is abundant in most colorectal tumors. The studies found that people who took aspirin regularly after they were diagnosed were nearly 30 percent less likely to die from their cancer than people who did not take aspirin.  The study does not definitively prove that aspirin caused better survival rates, but the COX-2 link fits with other research showing that aspirin inhibits inflammation-producing COX-2.

Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in the United States. 

For more information on colon cancer, click here.  The study referenced above was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on August 12, 2009.

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