Baby Aspirin Associated with Lower Risk of Ovarian Cancer

(October 9, 2018) A study, published in JAMA Oncology, followed about 200,000 women over the course of 25 years in order to track their use of analgesics. A little over one-thousand of those women developed epithelial ovarian cancer within that time frame. Although researchers didn’t find any significant differences in risk when they evaluated aspirin use versus non-use, they did find differences between those who were regularly using standard dose (325mg) versus low-dose (100mg or less). Those who took low-dose aspirin, or baby aspirin, had a 23% lower risk of ovarian cancer when compared to those who took the standard dosage. Meaning that, although taking the standard dose of aspirin didn’t appear to increase or decrease one’s risk, low-dose aspirin actively lowered one’s risk. Additionally, they observed that NSAIDs for a long period of time were associated with an increase in risk when compared to non-users. However, the authors of the study clarified that they would need to confirm this finding with further research.

The use of analgesics, meaning aspirin, low-dose aspirin, NSAIDs, and acetaminophen, in relation to ovarian cancer has been studied before. This study comes just a few months after this study from Journal of the National Cancer Institute, with different parameters but similar findings.