TUESDAY, Aug. 6, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Aspirin use is associated with a reduced risk of colorectal cancer (CRC), with the greatest risk reduction seen in people with the unhealthiest lifestyle scores, according to a study published online Aug. 1 in JAMA Oncology.
In a prospective cohort study of 63,957 women from the Nurses’ Health Study (1980-2018) and 43,698 men from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (1986-2018), Daniel R. Shikavi, MD, PhD, of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and Harvard Medical School and his colleagues examined whether aspirin use was associated with risk of CRC across a range of lifestyle risk factors.
The researchers identified 2,544 incident cases of CRC during 3,038,215 person-years of follow-up. The 10-year cumulative incidence of CRC was 1.98% in regular aspirin users and 2.95% in non-users, corresponding to an absolute risk reduction (ARR) of 0.97%. Those with the unhealthiest lifestyle scores had the highest ARR associated with aspirin use, and the ARR gradually decreased with healthier lifestyle scores. For those with lifestyle scores of 0–1 (unhealthiest), the 10-year ARR was 1.28% compared with 0.11% for those with scores of 4–5 (healthiest). For participants with lifestyle scores of 0–1, 2, 3, and 4–5, the 10-year number needed to treat with aspirin was 78, 164, 154, and 909, respectively. The largest differences in the ARR associated with aspirin use were seen for BMI and smoking.
“These results support the use of lifestyle risk factors to identify individuals who may have a more favorable risk-benefit profile for cancer prevention with aspirin,” the authors wrote.
One author revealed ties to the pharmaceutical industry.
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