12 ms·

An aspirin a day keeps many cancers away, study suggests

187 points by perseusprime11 9y ago

tyingq 9y ago
The close to 40% reduction (for several types of cancer) is pretty dramatic. And the breadth of the study (600k patients) seems reasonable. Is this really big news, or some skewed view of a study?
- ekianjo 9y ago
  > Is this really big news, or some skewed view of a study? Observational studies about the so-called benefits of aspirin come several times a year. But hey, why don't they put it in actual clinical trial instead, if they are SO confident it works so well?
  - ramblerman 9y ago
    Clinical trials for cancer prevention would mean 20-50 years no? That's a pretty big undertaking. I mean you would need a control group and a real one, and then just wait ... for a long time
    - dekhn 9y ago
      no. Cancer trials take a few years. You don't need to wait for everybody to get cancer, because small numbers of people get cancer stochastically every year.
    - ekianjo 9y ago
      Cancer is not rare enough to make it impossible to test in controlled populations. And actual cancer drug trials can recruit several thousands of patients routinely and will show clear survival benefits on that kind of base size if the effect is large enough.
    - hollander 9y ago
      Not only that, but you would need trust in both groups to keep doing what they should for this study. For 20 years, that's really long.
  - ryandvm 9y ago
    I have no knowledge of the field, but I'm guessing that zero profit potential for this therapy might have something to do with it. Hell, you can make aspirin in your kitchen.
    - ekianjo 9y ago
      > I have no knowledge of the field, but I'm guessing that zero profit potential for this therapy might have something to do with it. It could be a trial financed by public institutions/governments, since it may have good impact on the overall health system if you can drastically reduce/delay cancer rates... (plus aspirin is dirty cheap to make compared to expensive cancer care once a cancer is found). Unless such institutions have a clear incentive to let people die earlier... Anyway, my point is, even if for-profit organizations won't do it, public organizations should be able to get funding if it makes sense for the public good.
  - Jeema101 9y ago
    That might happen now that this study has been published! Let's not forget that medical science is ongoing - the idea that aspirin could prevent heart attacks probably seemed like quackery at one point too.
- smcl 9y ago
  If it’s in a UK newspaper you can safely take it with a pinch of salt. They have an unhealthy obsession with declaring various substances as causing or curing cancer
  - tyingq 9y ago
    After mulling on it, I wonder if the population that happens to take aspirin daily is heavily skewed towards "I just had a heart attack". That would imply either or both of: - Drastic changes in lifestyle (quit smoking, better diet, more exercise, etc) that might also reduce cancer occurrence - More likely to die of a heart issue before any cancer develops.
    - fgjjgutjvnu 9y ago
      And more likely to be checked by a physician on a regular basis.
  - gmac 9y ago
    Indeed. http://kill-or-cure.herokuapp.com/ http://kill-or-cure.herokuapp.com/
- DanBC 9y ago
  The telegraph doesn't have a good record of reporting health press releases. Maybe this article will eventually find its way to behind the headlines. https://www.nhs.uk/news/cancer/ https://www.nhs.uk/news/cancer/
dvfjsdhgfv 9y ago
So why don't we all take acetylic acid? Because as all blood diluents it can have dramatic consequences - a hemorrhage. Also, if you have an accident, things can get quite complicated. That's why a doctor will prescribe acetylic acid only if the benefits outweigh the risks - which is not always easy to assess.
- Lewton 9y ago
  It's become common to prescribe daily aspirin for older people afaik
- LinuxBender 9y ago
  I take aspirin on a regular cadence and have tinnitus as a fun side effect. This is actually quite common [1] but you won't hear a doctor giving that warning. No pun intended. [1] http://www.arthritis.org/living-with-arthritis/treatments/medication/drug-types/analgesics/pain-drugs-hearing-loss-men.php http://www.arthritis.org/living-with-arthritis/treatments/me...
  - copperx 9y ago
    Some commmon drugs cause hearing loss (ototoxic), but this is rarely mentioned by doctors. I guess hearing isn't considered as important as sight.
    - LinuxBender 9y ago
      In my case, hearing loss is less of a problem than closing off of the arteries. I'm going as far to experiment with off-label 2-hydroxypropyl-Beta-Cyclodextrin which can also cause hearing loss. My only point is that people should not take aspirin unless they have a medical need to do so that outweighs the risk of hearing loss.
      - tormeh 9y ago
        But what dosage are you on? Say I use a pill cutter and take half a baby aspirin a day (40-50mg). Do I risk hearing loss?
ekianjo 9y ago
Please post something more substantial. No links to the actual papers, no proper summary of how the data was generated (who they recruited, etc...), in other words it's blogspam at best.
- tyingq 9y ago
  The actual paper is locked up in Elsevier. http://www.gastrojournal.org/article/S0016-5085(17)30803-X/pdf http://www.gastrojournal.org/article/S0016-5085(17)30803-X/p...
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
- sndean 9y ago
  I'm pretty sure it's an AGA [1] conference abstract. There very likely isn't a paper yet, just a poster. [1] http://www.gastro.org/ http://www.gastro.org/
  - jestinjoy1 9y ago
    Confirmed through sci-hub [1] [1] http://sci-hub.cc/ http://sci-hub.cc/
- ddoran 9y ago
  The paper was presented at United European Gastroenterology conference in Barcelona. Press release: [1]. [1] - https://www.ueg.eu/press/releases/ueg-press-release/article/ueg-week-long-term-aspirin-use-reduces-the-incidence-of-digestive-cancers-by-up-to-47/ https://www.ueg.eu/press/releases/ueg-press-release/article/...
idclip 9y ago
I take aspirin protect, made by bayer. Grandad and dad had heart issues, so my dr started me a while ago on it as to curb the risks. An aspirin a day will also make your nose bleed after a few weeks. Albeit not profusely but if you blow your nose, you will see blood. take one every 3rd say. Unless its a very small dosage with delayed release. Aspirin should not be messed with, make sure you eat before you take a pill, or itll tear a hole in your stomach. Ive made that mistake once a decade ago. Please consult your doctor before grabbing off-the-counter aspirin.
- buserror 9y ago
  You can get tiny dosage pills, I use 75mg ones -- easily available at the supermarket in the uk. No node bleeding with that, even if you do risk bleeding a bit more than usual if you cut yourself.... Small price to pay for the 'feature' of thinning the blood, I suppose?
  - fauigerzigerk 9y ago
    I used to take those (for over a year), but my nose bleeds were difficult to stop and when I got an aneurysm at the bottom of my mouth I thought what if this happens in my brain? So I stopped taking the Aspirin.
    - idclip 9y ago
      Ouch sorry to hear that. And youre right, the thought of aspirin exacdrbating a brain aneurism are also something i think about too
- dominotw 9y ago
  >itll tear a hole in your stomach. Ive made that mistake once a decade ago. I know somone suffering from this mistake right now. Did this resolve on its own for you?
  - idclip 9y ago
    I made sure i avoided spicy and acidic food (read also anything sweet. Sweet potato/yams is ok) st, even "well seasoned" stuff. Herbs and abit of salt were ok amd even beneficial. did moderate sports activities, but that hurt like hell. Walking 30 minutes a day should be enough. Keep hydrated, make sure the food is soft - avoid processed foods and fizzy drinks and coffee at al cost. Sugarless herbal tee is all i drank in the morning, two full cups. Drank small doeses of anti acids before bed. I did a gastroscopy a year after that and it had healed. Smoking can exacerbate the condition and i quit for the duration. Mind you i was young at the time. The body heals itsself you just have to get out of the way. Im sorry for your friend, i still remeber the pain. Walking felt like being contonuisly stabbed in the stomach every 3rd step. Edited with more info
nik736 9y ago
I can see this being true. Also Xarelto and other drugs that can be used to prevent strokes are good for some things but the cons outweighs the pros for sure.
acqq 9y ago
The abstract of the study is here: http://www.gastrojournal.org/article/S0016-5085(17)30803-X/abstract http://www.gastrojournal.org/article/S0016-5085(17)30803-X/a...
rdtsc 9y ago
Or people who care enough to take an aspirin a day probably also take care of themselves better in other ways, which might be what keeps the cancer away?
- prodtorok 9y ago
  What if they are hypochondriacs filled with anxiety and stress? -- feel like these people would definitely take an asprin a day out of fear.
zenon 9y ago
Aspirin is metabolised to salicylic acid (SA) in the body. SA is a plant hormone found in many common food plants. I wonder if some of the health benefit of a plant-heavy diet can come from the SA. Maybe we are adapted to a certain level of SA intake, and eating aspirin helps us fulfill our SA "requirement" ... and then some, a baby Aspirin gives us 10-100x as much SA as a day's worth of plant-based food.
- Balgair 9y ago
  SA is also the active ingredient in wart removal balms, so there's that. Bio is SUPER complicated and really can't be reduced to first principals outside of breathe, drink, eat.
  - akeck 9y ago
    Breath, drink, eat, sleep?
    - Balgair 9y ago
      Yes, my bad :)
    - dotancohen 9y ago
      What, no code?
  - goialoq 9y ago
    That's for directly topically burning the wart though. (Also for acne.) Ingested SA isn't going to burn off a warn before burning your while body from inside out.
chewyshine 9y ago
Just an abstract. Limited or no peer review so be careful. Here's the text. Background: Chemopreventive effect of aspirin on colorectal cancer (CRC) has been reported, but there are indications that effects of aspirin are not limited to the colon or rectum. The aim of this study is to evaluate the long-term use of low-dose aspirin at 80mg for other gastrointestinal (GI) cancers. Method: A territory-wide dataset which includes all patients admitted to public hospitals of Hong Kong were used to extract a cohort between 2000 and 2004 with long-term use of aspirin and matched against non-aspirin users in 1:2 ratio. Further matching on survival time with duration of aspirin prescribed for at least 6 months was conducted to avoid immortal bias. Patients' outcomes were documented for up to 14 years until 2013. Changes in cancer incidences on colon/rectum, liver, oesophagus, pancreas and stomach were the primary outcomes. Cancer related mortalities were the secondary outcomes. Odds ratio (OR) was used to measure the cancer incidence, and Sub-distribution Hazard Ratio (SHR) for competing risk mortality was fitted to adjust for other cause-ofdeath. Results: A total of 618,884 subjects were included; 206,295 aspirin users with average aspirin prescribed for 7.7 years were matched with 412,589 non-aspirin users. The mean ages of patients in aspirin and non-aspirin group were 67.5 years and 67.6 years respectively. The median dose of aspirin prescribed was 80mg, and inter-quartile range was from 80 mg to 100 mg. A total of 18,500 (2.99%) cases of CRC, 9,433 (1.52%) of hepatic cancer, 2,658 (0.43%) of oesophageal cancer, 2,796 (0.45%) of pancreatic cancer, and 5,877 (0.95%) of gastric cancer were observed. Long term used of low-dose aspirin showed significant reduction on cancer incidences for CRC (OR:0.76, 95% CI:0.73-0.78), hepatic cancer (OR:0.53, 95% CI:0.51-0.56), oesophageal cancer (OR:0.53, 95% CI:0.49-0.59), pancreatic cancer (OR:0.66, 95% CI:0.60-0.71), and gastric cancer (OR:0.62, 95% CI:0.58-0.65). Long term used of low-dose aspirin also showed significant reduction on mortality from GI cancers (Table 1). Conclusion: Long-term use of low-dose aspirin, at 80mg, significantly reduced both incidence and mortality from colorectal, hepatic, oesophageal, pancreatic and gastric cancers.
- rodrigosetti 9y ago
  It’s not double blind. Aspirin takers might have other correlated behaviors which reduces cancer risks
macawfish 9y ago
In case you don't like pill popping, remember that many foods contain natural salicylates, including salicylic acid itself. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11493722 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11493722
- 52-6F-62 9y ago
  Great tidbit. The advice always seems to come back to: "EAT YOUR DARK GREENS ALREADY!" Spinach goes into my eggs every morning, and my poor girlfriend has suffered enough fresh salads with cucumber, broccoli and onion at my hands that she's come around to liking them — looking forward to them, and even requesting them. My god. Eat your spinach!
  - macawfish 9y ago
    Yes! And just remember, spinach is very healthy for you so long as your calcium/magnesium situation is balanced and you're drinking enough water and are moderate with caffeine/alcohol! Spinach will help your urinary tract do what it's designed to do, but it needs your help!
  - sliverstorm 9y ago
    I dunno, how can we be sure this isn't a long con by Big Arugula?
topbanana 9y ago
Correlation or causation? Interestingly, the cancers that are most lifestyle related (liver, lung) are the ones seemingly most affected by taking aspirin. Perhaps those taking aspirin are simply taking better care of themselves?
- autokad 9y ago
  anything that reduces swelling and inflammation will probably reduce cancer risk, so its not surprising at all. although people seem to get upset by that fact.
- gwern 9y ago
  There are meta-analyses of the RCTs for baby aspirin which also indicate reductions in all-cause mortality probably through its effect on cancer rates. I'd consider them much more important than this result which is ultimately just another correlational/observational result. Some of the studies I'm thinking of: - Rothwell et al 2012 "Short-term effects of daily aspirin on cancer incidence, mortality, and non-vascular death: analysis of the time course of risks and benefits in 51 randomised controlled trials" http://www.istudymedicine.com/wp-content/uploads/aspirin.pdf http://www.istudymedicine.com/wp-content/uploads/aspirin.pdf - "Effect of daily aspirin on long-term risk of death due to cancer: analysis of individual patient data from randomised trials" http://www.beppegrillo.it/immagini/Aspirin%20and%20death%20from%20cancer%20(Lancet%202010).pdf http://www.beppegrillo.it/immagini/Aspirin%20and%20death%20f... - "Aspirin for prophylactic use in the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease and cancer: a systematic review and overview of reviews" https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0083409/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0083409/ , Sutcliffe et al 2013 - Pignone et al 2013, "Effect of including cancer mortality on the cost-effectiveness of aspirin for primary prevention in men" https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3797356/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3797356/ - "Estimates of benefits and harms of prophylactic use of aspirin in the general population", Cuzick et al 2014 http://annonc.oxfordjournals.org/content/26/1/47.full http://annonc.oxfordjournals.org/content/26/1/47.full - Cuzick et al 2015, [Estimates of benefits and harms of prophylactic use of aspirin in the general population" https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4269341/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4269341/)
Gustomaximus 9y ago
I really look forward to big (hopefully open data) and health services to merge more. This could be one of the great wealths of information for the 21st century to progress health and treatment. If the governments put half as much effort into spying on our heath decisions and putting that data out there I'm guessing it would save more lives than current efforts!
nathan_long 9y ago
> [blah blah blah], study suggests Nobody outside medical research should pay the slightest attention to to anything a study suggests, especially not if they're ignoring what many studies give strong evidence for. Nothing to see here.
- elboru 9y ago
  Every time I read "study suggests" or its more sensationalistic cousin "scientists suggest" this image instantly comes to mind: https://www.sciencealert.com/images/art-apr-15/Medical_studies-05.0.png https://www.sciencealert.com/images/art-apr-15/Medical_studi...
- matt4077 9y ago
  I'm possibly misreading you here... But: You do know that it's not literally a study walking up to some journalist, speaking the words "I suggest some Aspirin!", right? ...because you seem to put some rather misplaced importance on the exact phrase used to introduce the study.
  - nathan_long 9y ago
    Yes, I'm aware that studies do not converse with people. When someone says a study "suggests" something, I understand them to mean that it gives very tentative evidence. Such evidence is frequently contradicted by other studies: see https://www.sciencealert.com/images/art-apr-15/Medical_studies-05.0.png https://www.sciencealert.com/images/art-apr-15/Medical_studi..., which another commenter has linked. If one study suggests that eggplants may prevent heart disease, you can pretty much bet that another will suggest it causes it. That's why I'm saying to ignore this. We would all do well to eat better and exercise more, suggestions that are well-supported by many studies. If we're not doing that, we're certainly wasting our time on uncertainties like this.
padraigf 9y ago
From what I can see, there's no control-group, so it's showing correlation, and not causation. I read that people who floss daily live longer too. It's not because they floss, but the ones who floss are more likely to have healthier lifestyles in general. This study seems to fit into the same bracket.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
S_A_P 9y ago
Aspirin always makes my stomach hurt terribly. Even low dose aspirin makes me feel like I have an ulcer. I wish I could take it...
- yawz 9y ago
  I hear you... I'm in the same boat. I've tried it many times, but my stomach wasn't happy about it.
- idclip 9y ago
  I take it and wish i didnt need to. Life's full of ironies.
bolololo1 9y ago
Who was the study sponsor?
primroot 9y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essential_fatty_acid_interactions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essential_fatty_acid_interacti... . Some recommended keywords that are not mentioned in the article: inflammation, essential fatty acids (EFA), and the Arachidonic Acid Cascade. A feature that significantly distinguishes modern diets, especially after the advent of "vegetable" oils and grain-fed meat, is the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 (the two types of EFA). Aspirin works by irreversibly inactivating the cyclooxigenase enzyme, which is involved in the Arachidonic Acid Cascade. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanism_of_action_of_aspirin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanism_of_action_of_aspirin Edit: Added last parragraph.
beegeezuz 9y ago
EVERYONE BUYI ASPIRIN NAO
MarkMc 9y ago
Here are two more studies suggesting that aspirin reduces cancer [1] [2]. The second is from 2014 but is particularly compelling because it assessed whether the drop in cancer was worth the increased risk of stomache bleeding. The head of that study said that taking aspirin "looks to be the most important thing we can do to reduce cancer after stopping smoking and reducing obesity, and will probably be much easier to implement" [1] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/aspirin-may-prevent-cancer-from-spreading-new-research-shows/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/aspirin-may-preve... [2] http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/aug/06/aspirin-could-dramtically-cut-cancer-risk-say-scientists-biggest-study-yet http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/aug/06/aspirin-could...
jonnycomputer 9y ago
Unless you have strong preferences on the diseases you end up getting, isn't the important thing aspirin's effect on total all-causes morbidity/mortality?
mishkovski 9y ago
>If taking aspirin were without side-effects and completely risk free, it might make sense for everyone with heart disease, or just worried about it, to take it. But aspirin does have risks. Reducing blood's clotting potential can lead to hemorrhagic stroke (bleeding inside the brain). In the stomach, aspirin can cause everything from a feeling of mild heartburn to bleeding ulcers. Severe gastrointestinal bleeding can be deadly. https://www.health.harvard.edu/healthbeat/should-everyone-take-an-aspirin-a-day https://www.health.harvard.edu/healthbeat/should-everyone-ta...
- bd 9y ago
  It's ... complicated: "for every 1000 patients treated for a 5-year period, aspirin therapy would be expected to result in 1 excess hemorrhagic stroke compared with a benefit of ≈14 myocardial infarctions prevented in patients at moderate risk for CHD (5% to 10% 5-year risk)" http://stroke.ahajournals.org/content/36/8/1801 http://stroke.ahajournals.org/content/36/8/1801 "Aspirin has been found to be a safe in patients harboring cerebral aneurysms and clinical studies provide evidence that it may decrease the overall rate of rupture." https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25967073 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25967073 "There was an approximately 40% increased risk of all gastrointestinal bleeding with low-dose aspirin in the observational studies reviewed here, a finding very similar to that reported in randomized trials" "The overall risk of intracranial hemorrhage was also increased by approximately 40% with long-term low-dose aspirin, which is also similar to the estimates from randomized trials, although an increase in risk was not consistently reported in all studies." https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4973997/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4973997/ "Aspirin reduced the 6 week risk of recurrent ischaemic stroke by about 60% and disabling or fatal ischaemic stroke by about 70%" https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5321490/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5321490/ "aspirin significantly reduced the risk of myocardial infarction among men by 43%" "significantly increased risk of major extracranial bleeding with aspirin [RR 1.54]. The excess risk of bleeds was mostly non-fatal. Perhaps by chance, fatal gastrointestinal (GI) or other fatal extracranial bleeds were lower in the aspirin group versus control [RR 0.48]" "In a meta-analysis of eight trials including 25,570 patients, aspirin use significantly reduced the overall incidence of cancer-related death by 21%" "In the meta-analysis of six trials, an increased risk of extracranial bleeding was observed with low-dose aspirin; however, the analysis of extracranial bleeding stratified by period of follow-up revealed that the risk of extracranial bleeding decreases over time, becoming comparable to that of placebo or no aspirin from 3 years onwards: <3 years" "In this same analysis, fewer cases of fatal bleeding were associated with aspirin use, compared with controls [OR 0.32]" https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4383813/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4383813/
nikolay 9y ago
Most of the negative effects of Aspirin can be countered by combining it with vitamin C [0]. In Europe, there are several combinations (Aspirin-C or Upsarin C) and the effervescent versions are especially nice. [0]: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/leo-galland-md/aspirin-and-vitamin-c-tog_b_529058.html https://www.huffingtonpost.com/leo-galland-md/aspirin-and-vi...
iask 9y ago
I ate an entire box of baby aspirin when I was a kid. Seriously. I clearly remember hiding under the bed while crunching away. Nothing happened. Come to think of it, I got the flu twice in 30 years.
- Traubenfuchs 9y ago
  Study suggests that consuming an entire box of baby aspirin causes reoccurring flu.
nik61 9y ago
Beware also that Aspirin allergy is a thing and often accompanies a general allergy to NSAIDs such as Ibuprofen. In my own case the allergy results in a moving facial swelling (angioedema) which my family dubbed 'Quasimodo Face' before we realised the cause. This effect lasted a day. I had it a few times before I worked it out. The allergy came on after a period of work stress and minor illness where I was taking Ibuprofen to get through the day.
matthewrudy 9y ago
Cancer Research UK has great articles on taking aspirin both to prevent cancer [1], and to prevent the spread and recurrence of cancer [2] Their tweets [3] today on the topic lay out the current situation pretty clearly Quoting their tweets and blog post: "Aspirin can help protect against bowel cancer, and possibly stomach, oesophageal and other cancer too" "Aspirin also increases the risk of strokes and stomach bleeding" "the benefits start building from age 50, so there’s little to gain from taking it below that age" [1] http://scienceblog.cancerresearchuk.org/2014/08/06/aspirin-and-cancer-not-quite-but-nearly/ http://scienceblog.cancerresearchuk.org/2014/08/06/aspirin-a... [2] http://about-cancer.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/cancer-in-general/treatment/cancer-drugs/aspirin-and-secondary-cancer http://about-cancer.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/cancer... [3] https://twitter.com/CR_UK/status/925323615360487425 https://twitter.com/CR_UK/status/925323615360487425
- MarkMc 9y ago
  I find the advice given by Cancer Research UK in your first link quite strange. They seem to accept that if 1000 people aged 60 took aspirin for 20 years there would be: 17.4 fewer deaths from cancer and heart attacks 2.4 more deaths from strokes, ulcers and gastric bleeds That's a net reduction of 15 deaths per 1000 people. Yet before they recommend that everyone aged 60 take aspirin, they want to know: a) What age should people start, and stop, taking aspirin? b) What dose should they take? c) What are the factors that should rule someone out from taking aspirin, and how should we test for them? Here are my answers to Cancer Research UK: a) People whose age would put them within the study cohort. From my reading this is at least people aged 60 for 20 years b) They should take the dose that was looked at in the study c) We don't know what factors should rule someone out, but until we do know we should recommend aspirin to everyone who would have been within the cohort study. There are probably around 10 million people aged 55-65 in the UK. 15 extra deaths per 1000 people means an extra 150,000 deaths over 20 years. So the cost of waiting for more studies is about 7 extra deaths per day in the UK alone. Cancer Research UK is being too hesitant in its recommendations.

The close to 40% reduction (for several types of cancer) is pretty dramatic. And the breadth of the study (600k patients) seems reasonable. Is this really big news, or some skewed view of a study?

ekianjo 9y ago
> Is this really big news, or some skewed view of a study? Observational studies about the so-called benefits of aspirin come several times a year. But hey, why don't they put it in actual clinical trial instead, if they are SO confident it works so well?
- ramblerman 9y ago
  Clinical trials for cancer prevention would mean 20-50 years no? That's a pretty big undertaking. I mean you would need a control group and a real one, and then just wait ... for a long time
  - dekhn 9y ago
    no. Cancer trials take a few years. You don't need to wait for everybody to get cancer, because small numbers of people get cancer stochastically every year.
  - ekianjo 9y ago
    Cancer is not rare enough to make it impossible to test in controlled populations. And actual cancer drug trials can recruit several thousands of patients routinely and will show clear survival benefits on that kind of base size if the effect is large enough.
  - hollander 9y ago
    Not only that, but you would need trust in both groups to keep doing what they should for this study. For 20 years, that's really long.
- ryandvm 9y ago
  I have no knowledge of the field, but I'm guessing that zero profit potential for this therapy might have something to do with it. Hell, you can make aspirin in your kitchen.
  - ekianjo 9y ago
    > I have no knowledge of the field, but I'm guessing that zero profit potential for this therapy might have something to do with it. It could be a trial financed by public institutions/governments, since it may have good impact on the overall health system if you can drastically reduce/delay cancer rates... (plus aspirin is dirty cheap to make compared to expensive cancer care once a cancer is found). Unless such institutions have a clear incentive to let people die earlier... Anyway, my point is, even if for-profit organizations won't do it, public organizations should be able to get funding if it makes sense for the public good.
- Jeema101 9y ago
  That might happen now that this study has been published! Let's not forget that medical science is ongoing - the idea that aspirin could prevent heart attacks probably seemed like quackery at one point too.
smcl 9y ago
If it’s in a UK newspaper you can safely take it with a pinch of salt. They have an unhealthy obsession with declaring various substances as causing or curing cancer
- tyingq 9y ago
  After mulling on it, I wonder if the population that happens to take aspirin daily is heavily skewed towards "I just had a heart attack". That would imply either or both of: - Drastic changes in lifestyle (quit smoking, better diet, more exercise, etc) that might also reduce cancer occurrence - More likely to die of a heart issue before any cancer develops.
  - fgjjgutjvnu 9y ago
    And more likely to be checked by a physician on a regular basis.
- gmac 9y ago
  Indeed. http://kill-or-cure.herokuapp.com/ http://kill-or-cure.herokuapp.com/
DanBC 9y ago
The telegraph doesn't have a good record of reporting health press releases. Maybe this article will eventually find its way to behind the headlines. https://www.nhs.uk/news/cancer/ https://www.nhs.uk/news/cancer/

dvfjsdhgfv 9y ago

So why don't we all take acetylic acid? Because as all blood diluents it can have dramatic consequences - a hemorrhage. Also, if you have an accident, things can get quite complicated. That's why a doctor will prescribe acetylic acid only if the benefits outweigh the risks - which is not always easy to assess.

Lewton 9y ago
It's become common to prescribe daily aspirin for older people afaik
LinuxBender 9y ago
I take aspirin on a regular cadence and have tinnitus as a fun side effect. This is actually quite common [1] but you won't hear a doctor giving that warning. No pun intended. [1] http://www.arthritis.org/living-with-arthritis/treatments/medication/drug-types/analgesics/pain-drugs-hearing-loss-men.php http://www.arthritis.org/living-with-arthritis/treatments/me...
- copperx 9y ago
  Some commmon drugs cause hearing loss (ototoxic), but this is rarely mentioned by doctors. I guess hearing isn't considered as important as sight.
  - LinuxBender 9y ago
    In my case, hearing loss is less of a problem than closing off of the arteries. I'm going as far to experiment with off-label 2-hydroxypropyl-Beta-Cyclodextrin which can also cause hearing loss. My only point is that people should not take aspirin unless they have a medical need to do so that outweighs the risk of hearing loss.
    - tormeh 9y ago
      But what dosage are you on? Say I use a pill cutter and take half a baby aspirin a day (40-50mg). Do I risk hearing loss?

ekianjo 9y ago

Please post something more substantial. No links to the actual papers, no proper summary of how the data was generated (who they recruited, etc...), in other words it's blogspam at best.

tyingq 9y ago
The actual paper is locked up in Elsevier. http://www.gastrojournal.org/article/S0016-5085(17)30803-X/pdf http://www.gastrojournal.org/article/S0016-5085(17)30803-X/p...
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
sndean 9y ago
I'm pretty sure it's an AGA [1] conference abstract. There very likely isn't a paper yet, just a poster. [1] http://www.gastro.org/ http://www.gastro.org/
- jestinjoy1 9y ago
  Confirmed through sci-hub [1] [1] http://sci-hub.cc/ http://sci-hub.cc/
ddoran 9y ago
The paper was presented at United European Gastroenterology conference in Barcelona. Press release: [1]. [1] - https://www.ueg.eu/press/releases/ueg-press-release/article/ueg-week-long-term-aspirin-use-reduces-the-incidence-of-digestive-cancers-by-up-to-47/ https://www.ueg.eu/press/releases/ueg-press-release/article/...

idclip 9y ago

I take aspirin protect, made by bayer. Grandad and dad had heart issues, so my dr started me a while ago on it as to curb the risks. An aspirin a day will also make your nose bleed after a few weeks. Albeit not profusely but if you blow your nose, you will see blood. take one every 3rd say. Unless its a very small dosage with delayed release. Aspirin should not be messed with, make sure you eat before you take a pill, or itll tear a hole in your stomach. Ive made that mistake once a decade ago. Please consult your doctor before grabbing off-the-counter aspirin.

buserror 9y ago
You can get tiny dosage pills, I use 75mg ones -- easily available at the supermarket in the uk. No node bleeding with that, even if you do risk bleeding a bit more than usual if you cut yourself.... Small price to pay for the 'feature' of thinning the blood, I suppose?
- fauigerzigerk 9y ago
  I used to take those (for over a year), but my nose bleeds were difficult to stop and when I got an aneurysm at the bottom of my mouth I thought what if this happens in my brain? So I stopped taking the Aspirin.
  - idclip 9y ago
    Ouch sorry to hear that. And youre right, the thought of aspirin exacdrbating a brain aneurism are also something i think about too
dominotw 9y ago
>itll tear a hole in your stomach. Ive made that mistake once a decade ago. I know somone suffering from this mistake right now. Did this resolve on its own for you?
- idclip 9y ago
  I made sure i avoided spicy and acidic food (read also anything sweet. Sweet potato/yams is ok) st, even "well seasoned" stuff. Herbs and abit of salt were ok amd even beneficial. did moderate sports activities, but that hurt like hell. Walking 30 minutes a day should be enough. Keep hydrated, make sure the food is soft - avoid processed foods and fizzy drinks and coffee at al cost. Sugarless herbal tee is all i drank in the morning, two full cups. Drank small doeses of anti acids before bed. I did a gastroscopy a year after that and it had healed. Smoking can exacerbate the condition and i quit for the duration. Mind you i was young at the time. The body heals itsself you just have to get out of the way. Im sorry for your friend, i still remeber the pain. Walking felt like being contonuisly stabbed in the stomach every 3rd step. Edited with more info

nik736 9y ago

I can see this being true. Also Xarelto and other drugs that can be used to prevent strokes are good for some things but the cons outweighs the pros for sure.

acqq 9y ago

The abstract of the study is here: http://www.gastrojournal.org/article/S0016-5085(17)30803-X/abstract http://www.gastrojournal.org/article/S0016-5085(17)30803-X/a...

rdtsc 9y ago

Or people who care enough to take an aspirin a day probably also take care of themselves better in other ways, which might be what keeps the cancer away?

prodtorok 9y ago
What if they are hypochondriacs filled with anxiety and stress? -- feel like these people would definitely take an asprin a day out of fear.

zenon 9y ago

Aspirin is metabolised to salicylic acid (SA) in the body. SA is a plant hormone found in many common food plants. I wonder if some of the health benefit of a plant-heavy diet can come from the SA. Maybe we are adapted to a certain level of SA intake, and eating aspirin helps us fulfill our SA "requirement" ... and then some, a baby Aspirin gives us 10-100x as much SA as a day's worth of plant-based food.

Balgair 9y ago
SA is also the active ingredient in wart removal balms, so there's that. Bio is SUPER complicated and really can't be reduced to first principals outside of breathe, drink, eat.
- akeck 9y ago
  Breath, drink, eat, sleep?
  - Balgair 9y ago
    Yes, my bad :)
  - dotancohen 9y ago
    What, no code?
- goialoq 9y ago
  That's for directly topically burning the wart though. (Also for acne.) Ingested SA isn't going to burn off a warn before burning your while body from inside out.

chewyshine 9y ago

Just an abstract. Limited or no peer review so be careful. Here's the text. Background: Chemopreventive effect of aspirin on colorectal cancer (CRC) has been reported, but there are indications that effects of aspirin are not limited to the colon or rectum. The aim of this study is to evaluate the long-term use of low-dose aspirin at 80mg for other gastrointestinal (GI) cancers. Method: A territory-wide dataset which includes all patients admitted to public hospitals of Hong Kong were used to extract a cohort between 2000 and 2004 with long-term use of aspirin and matched against non-aspirin users in 1:2 ratio. Further matching on survival time with duration of aspirin prescribed for at least 6 months was conducted to avoid immortal bias. Patients' outcomes were documented for up to 14 years until 2013. Changes in cancer incidences on colon/rectum, liver, oesophagus, pancreas and stomach were the primary outcomes. Cancer related mortalities were the secondary outcomes. Odds ratio (OR) was used to measure the cancer incidence, and Sub-distribution Hazard Ratio (SHR) for competing risk mortality was fitted to adjust for other cause-ofdeath. Results: A total of 618,884 subjects were included; 206,295 aspirin users with average aspirin prescribed for 7.7 years were matched with 412,589 non-aspirin users. The mean ages of patients in aspirin and non-aspirin group were 67.5 years and 67.6 years respectively. The median dose of aspirin prescribed was 80mg, and inter-quartile range was from 80 mg to 100 mg. A total of 18,500 (2.99%) cases of CRC, 9,433 (1.52%) of hepatic cancer, 2,658 (0.43%) of oesophageal cancer, 2,796 (0.45%) of pancreatic cancer, and 5,877 (0.95%) of gastric cancer were observed. Long term used of low-dose aspirin showed significant reduction on cancer incidences for CRC (OR:0.76, 95% CI:0.73-0.78), hepatic cancer (OR:0.53, 95% CI:0.51-0.56), oesophageal cancer (OR:0.53, 95% CI:0.49-0.59), pancreatic cancer (OR:0.66, 95% CI:0.60-0.71), and gastric cancer (OR:0.62, 95% CI:0.58-0.65). Long term used of low-dose aspirin also showed significant reduction on mortality from GI cancers (Table 1). Conclusion: Long-term use of low-dose aspirin, at 80mg, significantly reduced both incidence and mortality from colorectal, hepatic, oesophageal, pancreatic and gastric cancers.

rodrigosetti 9y ago
It’s not double blind. Aspirin takers might have other correlated behaviors which reduces cancer risks

macawfish 9y ago

In case you don't like pill popping, remember that many foods contain natural salicylates, including salicylic acid itself. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11493722 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11493722

52-6F-62 9y ago
Great tidbit. The advice always seems to come back to: "EAT YOUR DARK GREENS ALREADY!" Spinach goes into my eggs every morning, and my poor girlfriend has suffered enough fresh salads with cucumber, broccoli and onion at my hands that she's come around to liking them — looking forward to them, and even requesting them. My god. Eat your spinach!
- macawfish 9y ago
  Yes! And just remember, spinach is very healthy for you so long as your calcium/magnesium situation is balanced and you're drinking enough water and are moderate with caffeine/alcohol! Spinach will help your urinary tract do what it's designed to do, but it needs your help!
- sliverstorm 9y ago
  I dunno, how can we be sure this isn't a long con by Big Arugula?

topbanana 9y ago

Correlation or causation? Interestingly, the cancers that are most lifestyle related (liver, lung) are the ones seemingly most affected by taking aspirin. Perhaps those taking aspirin are simply taking better care of themselves?

autokad 9y ago
anything that reduces swelling and inflammation will probably reduce cancer risk, so its not surprising at all. although people seem to get upset by that fact.
gwern 9y ago
There are meta-analyses of the RCTs for baby aspirin which also indicate reductions in all-cause mortality probably through its effect on cancer rates. I'd consider them much more important than this result which is ultimately just another correlational/observational result. Some of the studies I'm thinking of: - Rothwell et al 2012 "Short-term effects of daily aspirin on cancer incidence, mortality, and non-vascular death: analysis of the time course of risks and benefits in 51 randomised controlled trials" http://www.istudymedicine.com/wp-content/uploads/aspirin.pdf http://www.istudymedicine.com/wp-content/uploads/aspirin.pdf - "Effect of daily aspirin on long-term risk of death due to cancer: analysis of individual patient data from randomised trials" http://www.beppegrillo.it/immagini/Aspirin%20and%20death%20from%20cancer%20(Lancet%202010).pdf http://www.beppegrillo.it/immagini/Aspirin%20and%20death%20f... - "Aspirin for prophylactic use in the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease and cancer: a systematic review and overview of reviews" https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0083409/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0083409/ , Sutcliffe et al 2013 - Pignone et al 2013, "Effect of including cancer mortality on the cost-effectiveness of aspirin for primary prevention in men" https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3797356/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3797356/ - "Estimates of benefits and harms of prophylactic use of aspirin in the general population", Cuzick et al 2014 http://annonc.oxfordjournals.org/content/26/1/47.full http://annonc.oxfordjournals.org/content/26/1/47.full - Cuzick et al 2015, [Estimates of benefits and harms of prophylactic use of aspirin in the general population" https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4269341/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4269341/)

Gustomaximus 9y ago

I really look forward to big (hopefully open data) and health services to merge more. This could be one of the great wealths of information for the 21st century to progress health and treatment. If the governments put half as much effort into spying on our heath decisions and putting that data out there I'm guessing it would save more lives than current efforts!

nathan_long 9y ago

> [blah blah blah], study suggests Nobody outside medical research should pay the slightest attention to to anything a study suggests, especially not if they're ignoring what many studies give strong evidence for. Nothing to see here.

elboru 9y ago
Every time I read "study suggests" or its more sensationalistic cousin "scientists suggest" this image instantly comes to mind: https://www.sciencealert.com/images/art-apr-15/Medical_studies-05.0.png https://www.sciencealert.com/images/art-apr-15/Medical_studi...
matt4077 9y ago
I'm possibly misreading you here... But: You do know that it's not literally a study walking up to some journalist, speaking the words "I suggest some Aspirin!", right? ...because you seem to put some rather misplaced importance on the exact phrase used to introduce the study.
- nathan_long 9y ago
  Yes, I'm aware that studies do not converse with people. When someone says a study "suggests" something, I understand them to mean that it gives very tentative evidence. Such evidence is frequently contradicted by other studies: see https://www.sciencealert.com/images/art-apr-15/Medical_studies-05.0.png https://www.sciencealert.com/images/art-apr-15/Medical_studi..., which another commenter has linked. If one study suggests that eggplants may prevent heart disease, you can pretty much bet that another will suggest it causes it. That's why I'm saying to ignore this. We would all do well to eat better and exercise more, suggestions that are well-supported by many studies. If we're not doing that, we're certainly wasting our time on uncertainties like this.

padraigf 9y ago

From what I can see, there's no control-group, so it's showing correlation, and not causation. I read that people who floss daily live longer too. It's not because they floss, but the ones who floss are more likely to have healthier lifestyles in general. This study seems to fit into the same bracket.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

S_A_P 9y ago

Aspirin always makes my stomach hurt terribly. Even low dose aspirin makes me feel like I have an ulcer. I wish I could take it...

yawz 9y ago
I hear you... I'm in the same boat. I've tried it many times, but my stomach wasn't happy about it.
idclip 9y ago
I take it and wish i didnt need to. Life's full of ironies.

bolololo1 9y ago

Who was the study sponsor?

primroot 9y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essential_fatty_acid_interactions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essential_fatty_acid_interacti... . Some recommended keywords that are not mentioned in the article: inflammation, essential fatty acids (EFA), and the Arachidonic Acid Cascade. A feature that significantly distinguishes modern diets, especially after the advent of "vegetable" oils and grain-fed meat, is the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 (the two types of EFA). Aspirin works by irreversibly inactivating the cyclooxigenase enzyme, which is involved in the Arachidonic Acid Cascade. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanism_of_action_of_aspirin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanism_of_action_of_aspirin Edit: Added last parragraph.

beegeezuz 9y ago

EVERYONE BUYI ASPIRIN NAO

MarkMc 9y ago

Here are two more studies suggesting that aspirin reduces cancer [1] [2]. The second is from 2014 but is particularly compelling because it assessed whether the drop in cancer was worth the increased risk of stomache bleeding. The head of that study said that taking aspirin "looks to be the most important thing we can do to reduce cancer after stopping smoking and reducing obesity, and will probably be much easier to implement" [1] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/aspirin-may-prevent-cancer-from-spreading-new-research-shows/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/aspirin-may-preve... [2] http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/aug/06/aspirin-could-dramtically-cut-cancer-risk-say-scientists-biggest-study-yet http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/aug/06/aspirin-could...

jonnycomputer 9y ago

Unless you have strong preferences on the diseases you end up getting, isn't the important thing aspirin's effect on total all-causes morbidity/mortality?

mishkovski 9y ago

>If taking aspirin were without side-effects and completely risk free, it might make sense for everyone with heart disease, or just worried about it, to take it. But aspirin does have risks. Reducing blood's clotting potential can lead to hemorrhagic stroke (bleeding inside the brain). In the stomach, aspirin can cause everything from a feeling of mild heartburn to bleeding ulcers. Severe gastrointestinal bleeding can be deadly. https://www.health.harvard.edu/healthbeat/should-everyone-take-an-aspirin-a-day https://www.health.harvard.edu/healthbeat/should-everyone-ta...

bd 9y ago
It's ... complicated: "for every 1000 patients treated for a 5-year period, aspirin therapy would be expected to result in 1 excess hemorrhagic stroke compared with a benefit of ≈14 myocardial infarctions prevented in patients at moderate risk for CHD (5% to 10% 5-year risk)" http://stroke.ahajournals.org/content/36/8/1801 http://stroke.ahajournals.org/content/36/8/1801 "Aspirin has been found to be a safe in patients harboring cerebral aneurysms and clinical studies provide evidence that it may decrease the overall rate of rupture." https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25967073 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25967073 "There was an approximately 40% increased risk of all gastrointestinal bleeding with low-dose aspirin in the observational studies reviewed here, a finding very similar to that reported in randomized trials" "The overall risk of intracranial hemorrhage was also increased by approximately 40% with long-term low-dose aspirin, which is also similar to the estimates from randomized trials, although an increase in risk was not consistently reported in all studies." https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4973997/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4973997/ "Aspirin reduced the 6 week risk of recurrent ischaemic stroke by about 60% and disabling or fatal ischaemic stroke by about 70%" https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5321490/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5321490/ "aspirin significantly reduced the risk of myocardial infarction among men by 43%" "significantly increased risk of major extracranial bleeding with aspirin [RR 1.54]. The excess risk of bleeds was mostly non-fatal. Perhaps by chance, fatal gastrointestinal (GI) or other fatal extracranial bleeds were lower in the aspirin group versus control [RR 0.48]" "In a meta-analysis of eight trials including 25,570 patients, aspirin use significantly reduced the overall incidence of cancer-related death by 21%" "In the meta-analysis of six trials, an increased risk of extracranial bleeding was observed with low-dose aspirin; however, the analysis of extracranial bleeding stratified by period of follow-up revealed that the risk of extracranial bleeding decreases over time, becoming comparable to that of placebo or no aspirin from 3 years onwards: <3 years" "In this same analysis, fewer cases of fatal bleeding were associated with aspirin use, compared with controls [OR 0.32]" https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4383813/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4383813/

nikolay 9y ago

Most of the negative effects of Aspirin can be countered by combining it with vitamin C [0]. In Europe, there are several combinations (Aspirin-C or Upsarin C) and the effervescent versions are especially nice. [0]: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/leo-galland-md/aspirin-and-vitamin-c-tog_b_529058.html https://www.huffingtonpost.com/leo-galland-md/aspirin-and-vi...

iask 9y ago

I ate an entire box of baby aspirin when I was a kid. Seriously. I clearly remember hiding under the bed while crunching away. Nothing happened. Come to think of it, I got the flu twice in 30 years.

Traubenfuchs 9y ago
Study suggests that consuming an entire box of baby aspirin causes reoccurring flu.

nik61 9y ago

Beware also that Aspirin allergy is a thing and often accompanies a general allergy to NSAIDs such as Ibuprofen. In my own case the allergy results in a moving facial swelling (angioedema) which my family dubbed 'Quasimodo Face' before we realised the cause. This effect lasted a day. I had it a few times before I worked it out. The allergy came on after a period of work stress and minor illness where I was taking Ibuprofen to get through the day.

matthewrudy 9y ago

Cancer Research UK has great articles on taking aspirin both to prevent cancer [1], and to prevent the spread and recurrence of cancer [2] Their tweets [3] today on the topic lay out the current situation pretty clearly Quoting their tweets and blog post: "Aspirin can help protect against bowel cancer, and possibly stomach, oesophageal and other cancer too" "Aspirin also increases the risk of strokes and stomach bleeding" "the benefits start building from age 50, so there’s little to gain from taking it below that age" [1] http://scienceblog.cancerresearchuk.org/2014/08/06/aspirin-and-cancer-not-quite-but-nearly/ http://scienceblog.cancerresearchuk.org/2014/08/06/aspirin-a... [2] http://about-cancer.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/cancer-in-general/treatment/cancer-drugs/aspirin-and-secondary-cancer http://about-cancer.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/cancer... [3] https://twitter.com/CR_UK/status/925323615360487425 https://twitter.com/CR_UK/status/925323615360487425

MarkMc 9y ago
I find the advice given by Cancer Research UK in your first link quite strange. They seem to accept that if 1000 people aged 60 took aspirin for 20 years there would be: 17.4 fewer deaths from cancer and heart attacks 2.4 more deaths from strokes, ulcers and gastric bleeds That's a net reduction of 15 deaths per 1000 people. Yet before they recommend that everyone aged 60 take aspirin, they want to know: a) What age should people start, and stop, taking aspirin? b) What dose should they take? c) What are the factors that should rule someone out from taking aspirin, and how should we test for them? Here are my answers to Cancer Research UK: a) People whose age would put them within the study cohort. From my reading this is at least people aged 60 for 20 years b) They should take the dose that was looked at in the study c) We don't know what factors should rule someone out, but until we do know we should recommend aspirin to everyone who would have been within the cohort study. There are probably around 10 million people aged 55-65 in the UK. 15 extra deaths per 1000 people means an extra 150,000 deaths over 20 years. So the cost of waiting for more studies is about 7 extra deaths per day in the UK alone. Cancer Research UK is being too hesitant in its recommendations.