Daily aspirin use may reduce ovarian cancer risk among high-risk patients
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Key takeaways:
- Frequent aspirin use appeared associated with a 13% reduction in ovarian cancer risk across 17 studies analyzed.
- Researchers observed a 19% reduction among women with at least two ovarian cancer risk factors.
- The findings suggest frequent aspirin use may complement other chemoprevention strategies for high-risk populations, researchers wrote.
Women who take aspirin frequently may reduce their risk for ovarian cancer, according to results of a meta-analysis published in Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Frequent aspirin use conferred a 13% reduction in ovarian cancer risk across the 17 studies analyzed.
Researchers observed the reduced risk among women with multiple ovarian cancer risk factors, suggesting frequent aspirin use may complement other chemoprevention strategies for this population.
Background
Previous randomized studies have suggested a chemopreventive effect of aspirin for cardiovascular inflammatory conditions and ovarian cancer, according to Britton Trabert, PhD, MS, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at University of Utah School of Medicine and a Huntsman Cancer Institute investigator in the Cancer Control and Population Sciences Research Program.
This background, coupled with the known role of inflammation in the development of ovarian cancer, prompted Trabert’s group to explore the relationship between anti-inflammatory medications — such as aspirin — and ovarian cancer risk.
“Ovarian cancer is a highly fatal cancer in need of preventive interventions, as most currently established ovarian cancer risk factors are nonmodifiable,” Trabert told Healio. “We specifically wanted to investigate whether the protective association between aspirin use and ovarian cancer was modified by other ovarian cancer risk factors.”
Methodology
Trabert and colleagues pooled data from 17 prospective studies that focused on ovarian cancer and collected data on aspirin use.
The analysis included nine cohort studies and eight case-control studies.
Investigators considered frequent use of aspirin as at least 6 days/week or at least 28 days/month for a duration of 6 months or more.
Researchers assessed associations between frequent aspirin use and ovarian cancer risk, individual ovarian risk factors and the number of ovarian cancer risk factors per person.
Key findings
Investors found that frequent aspirin use led to a 13% reduction in ovarian cancer risk (RR = 0.87; 95% CI, 0.8-0.94).
Researchers observed no significant risk reduction among women with endometriosis. However, they reported consistent risk reductions among frequent aspirin users with other ovarian cancer risk factors, including obesity (RR = 0.79; 95% CI, 0.67-0.93), family history of breast cancer or ovarian cancer (RR = 0.88; 95% CI, 0.72-1.06), oral contraceptive use (RR for < 5 years = 0.92; 95% CI, 0.75-1.12; RR for 5 years = 0.91; 95% CI, 0.77-1.08) and tubal ligation (RR for no tubal ligation = 0.82; 95% CI, 0.73-0.91; RR for tubal ligation = 0.93; 95% CI, 0.76-1.13).
Further analysis showed a 19% reduction in ovarian cancer risk among women who had two or more risk factors (RR = 0.81; 95% CI, 0.73-0.9).
Clinical implications
The results suggest that aspirin’s ability to reduce ovarian cancer risk does not appear to be affected by other known risk factors for the disease, Trabert said.
“Our study provides additional information that may aid individuals and their clinicians in making informed decisions about whether to initiate daily, low-dose aspirin,” Trabert told Healio. “When determining whether a patient should consider taking aspirin daily, one must consider both the benefits ... and the harms of aspirin use. For a given patient, this balance of benefits and harms will depend on the patient’s age and baseline risks [for] each outcome.”
For more information:
Britton Trabert, PhD, MS, can be reached at britton.trabert@hci.utah.edu.
Collapse
Read more about
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts