Aspirin is known to reduce the risk of colorectal cancer in middle-aged adults and up until age 70, but has some risky side effects, such as colorectal bleeding.
It was not known at what stage it was still worth it to start taking aspirin. Indeed, the recent Aspirin in Reducing Events in the Elderly (ASPREE) trial reported that participants taking a daily dose of aspirin (100mg) after the age of 70 for five years had a 30% increased risk of cancer mortality.
It is also currently recommended by the US Preventive Services Task Force that people aged 50-59 years with specific cardiovascular risk profiles take aspirin for its protective effect against heart disease.
To answer the question of whether aspirin was beneficial or harmful after age 70, Andrew T Chan MD, MPH, a gastroenterologist and chief of the Clinical and Translational Epidemiology Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), led a team of researchers that analysed a pair of large cohort studies.These were The Nurses’ Health Study (January 1980 – June 2014) and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (January 1986 – January 2014), giving them a total of 94 500 participants over 35 years.
Their findings showed that aspirin could indeed protect adults over 70 from colorectal cancer – with the caveat that the protection only applied if they started taking aspirin before the age of 70.”There is considerable evidence that aspirin can prevent colorectal cancer in adults between 50 and 70 years old,” commented Chan. “But it has not been clear whether the effect is similar in older adults.”
The researchers concluded that their results “strongly suggest that there is a potential biological difference in the effect of aspirin at older ages which requires further research.”
Source: News-Medical.Net
