Aspirin, SSRI use linked with reduced CRC risk
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The use of aspirin and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, either as monotherapy or in combination, was associated with reduced risk for colorectal cancer, according to study results.
“Chemoprevention, using medications to block the pathogenetic pathways of disease, has become a promising method for cancer prevention,” Zhi-Gang Zhang, PhD, from Shanghai Cancer Institute, and colleagues wrote. “In this nested case-control study, we combined several Swedish nationwide registers and aimed to explore whether aspirin and SSRIs, either as monotherapy or combined, could be associated with a decreased risk of CRC and whether the combined use has a stronger preventive effect than monotherapy.”
Researchers conducted a nested case-control study using nationwide registers from Sweden. They randomly matched 24,786 cases of CRC with 74,358 control individuals conditional on birth year and sex.
Zhang and colleagues found that use of either aspirin (adjusted OR = 0.91; 95% CI, 0.87-0.97) or SSRIs (aOR = 0.93; 95% CI, 0.86-1) were negatively associated with CRC risk. The combined use of both was associated with a lower risk of CRC (aOR = 0.77; 95% CI, 0.67-0.89).
Investigators also found a significant interaction at the additive scale suggesting that combined aspirin and SSRI use might have a synergistic effect against the development of CRC. Additionally, they found that the inverse associations of CRC with aspirin and SSRIs were dose dependent.
“Findings from this study need to be confirmed by well-designed randomization clinical studies in the future,” Zhang and colleagues wrote.
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