Taken aspirin could potentially avoid the future risk of prostate cancer for men, according to a new report.
The study was presented on Monday at an American Association for Cancer Research meeting, according to Bloomberg News. The results found that men who regularly used anti- inflammatory pain pills had a 13 percent lower risk of prostate cancer and 17 percent fewer dangerous, high-grade tumors. A second study suggested the mechanism responsible for preventing the tumors could be the medicine's ability to block production of a hormone that spurs cancer growth, according to the report.
"Low-dose aspirin is taken by millions of Americans to prevent heart attacks and strokes," said Pierre Massion, a professor of medicine and cancer biology at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville who worked on the research to Bloomberg News. "It has been shown to prevent colon cancer. What we are saying is that the benefit of aspirin even at low doses could also help other cancers, including lung, breast and prostate."
The Chicago Tribune reported that most men don't even know that aspirin can prevent the growth of the tumor or at least slow it down.
"We found the mechanism to explain how low-dose aspirin can eventually decrease the incidence of new cancers after you have taken it for five years or more," he said. "It can also explain why people who are taking aspirin after being diagnosed have a lower risk of dying of their metastases."