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Aspirin may be linked to lower risk for death in prostate cancer
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52nd ASTRO Annual Meeting
SAN DIEGO — Besides radiation therapy or surgery, anticoagulants such as aspirin may help men with prostate cancer reduce their risk for dying by more than half.
Previous findings have demonstrated that anticoagulants may interfere with cancer growth and spread, according to Kevin Choe, MD, PhD, radiation oncologist at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas.
“If the major effect of anticoagulants is preventing metastasis, this may be why previous clinical trials with anticoagulation medications produced mixed results, since most patients in these trials already had metastasis. If the cancer has already metastasized, then anticoagulants may not be as beneficial,” Choe said in a press release.
To examine the potential relationship between anticoagulation medications on mortality from prostate cancer, researchers evaluated data from the Cancer of the Prostate Strategic Urologic Research Endeavor (CaPSURE) database.
They included 5,275 men whose cancer had not spread beyond the prostate gland and who were treated with surgery or radiation. There were 1,982 patients taking anticoagulants (aspirin, warfarin, clopidogrel or enoxaparin). Patients were classified into high-, intermediate- or low-risk disease groups.
Findings demonstrated that the use of anticoagulants among patients with prostate cancer treated with surgery or radiation decreased their risk for death from 4% to 1% at 7 years and from 10% to 4% at 10 years (P<.01). The risk for developing bone metastasis decreased as well.
Additionally, benefit appeared to be greater among patients who had high-risk disease (P<.01).
“These are the patients who have the most aggressive cancer and for whom current options for treatment are limited,” Choe said during a news briefing.
Benefit was also most prominent for aspirin when compared with other anticoagulants.
“Findings from this study are promising; however, further studies are necessary before the addition of aspirin to prostate cancer therapy becomes standard treatment,” Choe said in a press release.
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