Aspirina e rischio di cancro: Un aggiornamento al 2001

The evidence of a protective role of aspirin on the risk of colorectal and other common cancers has been collected since the end of the 1980's. To date, there are more than 15 epidemiological (case-control and cohort) studies, which indicate that use of aspirin for a long time is associated with a reduced risk of colorectal cancer, the overall relative risk (RR) estimate for regular aspirin users being 0.84 (95% Cl 0. 72-0.98) from cohort studies, and 0.71 (95% Cl 0.66-0.77) from case-control ones. As regards breast cancer, a recent meta-analysis has reported a RR of 0. 79 (95% Cl 0.59-1.06) for aspirin use in all cohort studies, and of 0. 70 (95% Cl 0.61-0.81) in case-control ones. Furthermore, various epidemiological studies suggested that aspirin use may have a favourable effect on ovarian cancer as well, reporting an overall RR estimate of 0.82 (95% Cl 0.69-0.99), although the evidence is too limited to draw definitive conclusions. Data are even scantier, but in the same direction, for other neoplasms, including in particular stomach and oesophageal cancer.