Low-Dose Aspirin May Lower Ovarian Cancer Risk

(HealthDay News) — Low-dose aspirin use is associated with a reduced risk for ovarian cancer, according to a study published online Oct. 4 in JAMA Oncology.

Mollie E. Barnard, Sc.D., from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, and colleagues examined nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) use and ovarian cancer diagnosis using data from two prospective cohorts: 93,664 women in the Nurses’ Health Study (NHS) and 111,834 in the NHS II.

The researchers identified 1,054 cases of incident epithelial ovarian cancer among the 205,498 women in both cohorts. When current use versus non-use of any aspirin was evaluated, significant associations between aspirin and cancer risk were not observed, regardless of aspirin dose (hazard ratio, 0.99; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.83 to 1.19). On separate analysis of low-dose and standard-dose aspirin, an inverse association was identified for low-dose aspirin (hazard ratio, 0.77; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.61 to 0.96) but not for standard-dose aspirin (hazard ratio, 1.17; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.92 to 1.49). Compared with non-use, current use of non-aspirin NSAIDs correlated with ovarian cancer risk (hazard ratio, 1.19; 95 percent confidence interval, 1.00 to 1.41); there were significant positive trends for duration of use and cumulative average tablets per week (P = 0.02 and 0.03 for trend, respectively).

“These results support a lower risk of ovarian cancer among low-dose aspirin users, although the association between other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and ovarian cancer may be more complex,” the authors write.

Abstract/Full Text
Editorial