Colorectal Cancer Health Center

Aspirin May Help Treat Colon Cancer

Aspirin-Resistant Colon Cancer continued...

Survival in those with the Cox-2-negative tumors did not appear to be affected by aspirin use.

The new findings could one day lead to aspirin-based therapies for patients with newly diagnosed, early-stage colorectal cancer. However, the researchers do not recommend the routine use of aspirin or related medicines for cancer treatment until further studies are done. Aspirin and other Cox-2 inhibitors can cause potentially dangerous side effects such as gastrointestinal bleeding.

In an accompanying editorial published in the same journal, Alfred I. Neugut, MD, PhD, of Columbia University, adds that aspirin-related survival studies should also be done in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer.