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Aspirin may prevent prostate cancer
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
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Scientists have discovered another useful property of aspirin. In addition to the fact that the well-known painkiller can reduce the risk of strokes and heart attacks, it can also minimize the risk of developing prostate cancer in men.
Regular use of low doses of aspirin has been found to be a more effective way to combat the disease than traditional methods, including surgery and radiation therapy.
Study author Dr. Kevin Ho, an associate professor of radiation oncology at UT Southwestern, and colleagues conducted a urological evaluation of 6,000 men who had been treated for prostate cancer with surgery or radiation therapy.
2,200 people (37% of the participants in the experiment) took anticoagulants (chemical substances and drugs that inhibit the activity of the blood coagulation system and prevent the formation of blood clots) warfarin, clopidogrel, enoxaparin and aspirin. The specialists compared the results of the tests with the tests of patients who did not take these drugs.
The effectiveness of these medications was proven by the fact that over a ten-year period, mortality among those who took anticoagulants was significantly lower than among those who did not. Accordingly, the risk of relapse and metastasis also decreased.
Further analysis of the results obtained allowed us to conclude that such successes were achieved thanks to the use of aspirin, and not other anticoagulants.
According to Dr. Ho, this discovery is of great importance for the development of medicine, in particular new methods of treating prostate cancer, because, according to statistics, in the United States prostate cancer is the second most common cause of death among the male population. And in Great Britain, it is diagnosed annually in 16 thousand men, while only 40 percent of patients live more than five years.
Aspirin inhibits the action of an enzyme that promotes tumor cell growth. However, doctors do not recommend that men start taking aspirin, because this drug also has side effects.
Long-term use of the drug causes irritation of the mucous membrane, which can lead to stomach ulcers and dangerous bleeding.
"We need to figure out what the optimal dose of aspirin is for prostate cancer before we can prescribe it to patients," says Dr Ho.
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