Fwd: Daily Aspirin Use Linked With Pancreatic Cancer

[Guest guest]

Nowhere in this research piece was there any mention of dose. Does this

link with Pancreatic Cancer from daily aspirin use, apply to " baby aspirin? "

Why do these researchers always fail to make these distinctions? If " baby

aspirin " is used, it would be equivalent to 1.75 (325mg) aspirins a week,

half the average number of whole aspirins used in the study showing an 11%

increase in Pancreatic Cancer, which would almost certainly reveal a smaller

percentage increase. I have seen many statements from doctors that claim

that " low dose " aspirin (81mg), even taken every other day, is sufficient to

provide an anti-carcinogenic action.

JP

-

" Frank " <califpacific

<alternative_medicine_forum >

Tuesday, October 28, 2003 9:31 AM

Fwd: Daily

Aspirin Use Linked With Pancreatic Cancer

 

 

 

 

" The Goltls "

Tue, 28 Oct 2003 08:49:36 -0600

Daily Aspirin Use Linked With Pancreatic

Cancer

 

Daily Aspirin Use Linked

With Pancreatic Cancer

By Maggie Fox

Health and Science Correspondent

10-27-3

 

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Women who take an aspirin a day -- which millions do

to prevent heart attack and stroke as well as to treat headaches -- may

raise their risk of getting deadly pancreatic cancer, U.S. researchers said

on Monday.

 

The surprising finding worried doctors, who say women will now have to talk

seriously with their physicians about the risk of taking a daily aspirin.

 

Pancreatic cancer affects only 31,000 Americans a year, but it kills

virtually all its victims within three years.

 

The study of 88,000 nurses found that those who took two or more aspirins a

week for 20 years or more had a 58 percent higher risk of pancreatic cancer.

 

" Apart from smoking, this one of the few risk factors that have been

identified for pancreatic cancer, " Dr. Eva Schernhammer of Harvard Medical

School and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, who led the study, told a

news conference.

 

" Initially we expected that aspirin would protect against pancreatic cancer,

especially since its preventive role in colorectal cancer has been well

documented. However, now it appears that we need to examine the relationship

more thoroughly, " Schernhammer added in a statement.

 

" This finding does not mean that women should no longer use aspirin. There

are still important benefits to the drug; we also need other large cohort

studies to confirm our finding before we can draw any conclusions. "

 

Schernhammer and colleagues presented their findings to a meeting in

Phoenix, Arizona, of the American Association for Cancer Research.

 

They studied 88,378 women taking part in a large and wide-ranging study of

nurses and their health.

 

Over 18 years, 161 of the nurses developed pancreatic cancer.

 

Those who took 14 tablets or more per week had an 86 percent greater risk of

pancreatic cancer than non-users. The nurses who took between six and 13

tablets had a 41 percent higher risk, while those who only took one to three

aspirins a week had an 11 percent greater risk.

 

The women who took the most aspirin said they were taking it not to protect

against heart disease, but because of headaches or other aches and pains.

 

Even with the increased risk, heart disease is a much greater threat to a

woman's, or a man's, health. It is by far the biggest killer in the United

States and other developed nations. The American Heart Association says

cardiovascular disease killed more than 945,000 Americans in 2000.

 

Doctors do not clearly understand what causes pancreatic cancer, or what

makes it so deadly. Obesity is another risk factor, but Schernhammer said

her team's findings held regardless of a woman's weight, whether she smoked

and whether she had diabetes.

 

Schernhammer noted that one study showed that regular aspirin use may cause

pancreatitis -- an inflammation of the pancreas that can sometimes lead to

pancreatic cancer.

 

" There is urgent need to settle the biologic reasons for pancreatic cancer, "

she said.

 

 

 

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