Aspirin Reduces Esophageal Cancer in At-risk Patients
Reported February 27, 2007
(
Ivanhoe Newswire) — Aspirin and other pain relievers may keep patients with the most aggressive form of Barrett’s esophagus from developing esophageal cancer.
Researchers from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle report aspirin, ibuprofen and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) may help patients with the precancerous condition, Barrett’s esophagus. Their study also reveals a group of four genetic abnormalities (cancer biomarkers) in Barrett’s patients that significantly increases the risk of developing esophageal cancer.
Study participants with three or more of the cancer biomarkers who also took aspirin or other NSAIDs had a 30 percent risk of esophageal cancer after 10 years. Participants with the same biomarkers who did not take NSAIDs had a 79 percent risk, according to study authors.
Results also show Barrett’s patients who had no genetic abnormalities had a 12 percent risk of developing esophageal cancer after 10 years, while those with three or more abnormalities had a nearly 80 percent risk.
Only about 1 percent of Barrett’s esophagus patients develop esophageal cancer every year. If the cancer is not diagnosed early, however, overall survival is very low — only 13.7 percent. Because of the high mortality rate, Barrett’s patients have frequent endoscopic screenings and tissue biopsies.
“Many Barrett’s patients are subjected to over-diagnosis of risk and over-treatment,” reports senior author Brian J. Reid, M.D., Ph.D., from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. “These findings ultimately may help us identify high risk patients who truly require frequent surveillance and low risk patients who need no or less frequent surveillance. These findings also may help us determine which Barrett’s patients may benefit most from a very cost-effective, noninvasive therapy in the form of aspirin or NSAIDs.”
SOURCE: PLoS Medicine, published online Feb. 27, 2007
