Can Aspirin Reduce the Risk of Breast Cancer Recurrence?
By: Rebecca Viksnins Snowden Women with breast cancer who take aspirin regularly after diagnosis and treatment may have a lower risk of dying from breast cancer or seeing their breast cancer come back in distant parts of the body (known as distant recurrence), according to a new study published in The Journal of Clinical Oncology. However, experts do not recommend breast cancer patients start taking aspirin because of these findings. More research is needed to confirm any benefits, and taking aspirin regularly has known risks, including serious stomach bleeding. The study, led by researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Harvard Medical School and funded by the National Institutes of Health, is the largest to look at whether taking aspirin and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) after breast cancer diagnosis reduces the risk of breast cancer death or distant recurrence. Previous studies have had mixed results. Some research has sh
