Common painkiller decreases the risk of silent killer cancer, scientists warn

FREQUENT use of a common painkiller could lower your risk of developing ovarian cancer, scientists have found.

A new study has shown that taking aspirin daily could make you less likely to develop the disease.

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It’s the sixth most common cancer for women in the UK, according to Cancer Research UK – and it’s often dubbed a silent killer due to the fact most people don’t notice symptoms in the early stages.

Target Ovarian Cancer says over 7,000 women are diagnosed in the UK each year.

“The findings of this study suggest that frequent aspirin use may lower the risk of ovarian cancer, regardless of an individual’s genetic susceptibility to ovarian cancer,” the researchers wrote.

They pooled together data from eight studies conducted by the Ovarian Cancer Association Consortium between 1995 and 2009 in the US, UK and Australia.

Their analysis covered 4,476 patients with non-mucinous ovarian cancer (a rare type of the disease) and 6,659 control participants who did not have cancer, all aged between 49 and 66.

Of those with cancer, 13 per cent frequently used aspirin, compared to 15 per cent of the control participants.

The researchers defined frequent aspirin use as taking the drug daily – or almost daily – for six months or longer.

And they assessed patients’ susceptibility to cancer using a polygenic score – this measures how likely you are to develop a disease based on your genes.

“Frequent aspirin use was associated with a 13 per cent reduced risk of non-mucinous ovarian cancer,” they wrote.

“Risk reductions were greatest for high-grade serous and
endometrioid tumours,” researchers said.

These results suggest that inherited genetic susceptibility to ovarian cancer based on currently identified common genetic variants does not modify the protective association between frequent aspirin use and ovarian cancer.

They also found that patients’ polygenic score – which measured their susceptibility to cancer – did not have an effect on aspirin’s protective qualities.

“Future work should continue to explore the role of aspirin use for ovarian cancer prevention among individuals who are
at higher risk for ovarian cancer,” the research team suggested.

Aspirin has been found to lower the risk of some cancers and raise chances of breast cancer survival.

However, previous studies have also warned that frequent use of the painkiller could cause internal bleeding in people over 60.

And while a daily dose of aspirin has been recommended to some if they are at genetic risk of heart disease, another study found it caused heart issues in people with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

This was also the case if they smoked or were obese.