Aspirin use 'can raise risk of pancreatic cancer'
Women who take an aspirin a day to reduce the risk of having a heart attack or stroke could increase their chances of developing cancer of the pancreas, researchers have found.
But they were better off sticking to their daily dose of aspirin because suddenly stopping could do more harm than good, scientists in America said.
An 18-year study of 88,378 female nurses found that those who frequently took aspirin were more likely to develop the disease.
“Apart from smoking, this is one of the few risk factors that has been identified for pancreatic cancer,” said study author Dr Eva Schernhammer at a news conference yesterday.
The finding shocked the researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, who had expected to find it actually reduced the risk.
The study found that nurses who took 14 aspirin tablets or more every week had an 86% increased risk of developing pancreatic cancer than those who did not take the drug.
Those who took between six and 13 tablets had a 41% higher risk, and those who took one to three a week had an 11% greater risk.
But Dr Schernhammer urged women not to suddenly stop taking the drug on the basis of a single study.
“There are still important benefits to the drug,” she said.
She added that heart attacks were much more common than pancreatic cancer.
The findings were presented to a meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in Phoenix, Arizona.
