Saturday, April 7, 2012

A Discussion on Aspirin Cancer Prevention

Not too long ago, my dad was felled by cancer, and it made me wonder why I had not selected to take medical studies before. That said, I could hardly have helped him a great deal, I think, given the limitations we had then in cancer treatment. Today, as medical science takes a closer look at aspirin cancer prevention methods, cancer may just have found its match.

According to recent medical findings and based on a body of evidence, the cheap and often overlooked aspirin can help prevent cancer and reduce the risk of dying from it. Since this medicament is so cheap and widely distributed, the research was welcomed by medical experts all over the globe. The idea of simply taking oral medicaments for preventing the growth of cancer really strikes a chord in me because my own loved one perished far too early due to his reluctance to undergo the pain of chemo.

Even so, I have to admit that there is little hope even then: aspirin is shown to reduce the chances of cancer, not heal it. The group that took aspirin regularly and in small doses was found to have lower cancer occurrences. And indeed, even those who already had it seemed to react by getting slower metastasis.

The medicament has been seen to elicit different responses from different cancers. A controlled study that administered a daily dosage of aspirin for more than six years proved that the drug lowered the risk of metastatic cancer by 36% and 46% for prostate, colon and lung cancer. My loved one perished from cancerous cells in his colon.

Meanwhile, a research study led by Oxford professor Dr. Peter M. Rothwell observed that the risk of esophageal cancer was reduced by a staggering 75% and of the common colorectal cancer by 40-50%. This could indicate that you should begin to consider the idea of aspirin as a controlled medicament for helping you fight a history of cancer in your bloodline. There are a lot of people in the field who are already coming close to verifying the validity of such a concept, although they do advise to be careful with doses due to possible unwanted reactions.

Just about all medicaments have bad side-effects when their consumption is not regulated. Internal bleeding may be a consequence of overdoing your aspirin consumption, for instance. It shows that any drug can turn from blessing to curse if you overdo it.

A good number of physicians are not ready to recommend regular doses of aspirin to healthy individuals. Some people, for instance, have produced research that they say opposes the findings in favor of aspirin being effective as a preventative to cancer. Since these studies did not administer aspirin every day to the subjects, however, they are considered suspect.

Given that the initial thrust of the Oxford scientists was prevention of heart problems as opposed to cancer, though, some skeptics are eyeing the positive research negatively too. There are countries where doctors often suggest regular consumption of baby aspirin for those with weak hearts. Critics note that cardiac problems are quite different from cancer-related ones.

Some of the people in the field opt to take a more sensible view of the findings, saying they have promise and need to be continued for further certainty. An example would be one of the leaders of the American Cancer Society, who noted that he was positive about the studies but not necessarily endorsing the drug yet. The potential of aspirin for preventing cancer is clearly what is being brought to light here, say some, and not its certainty.

Personally, I cannot provide a comment on the science behind these matters, as I am not qualified for it. All I know is that cancer took away my father and I hope people will find a failsafe cure for this killer disease soon. I hope that with time and more research on aspirin cancer will become less common.



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