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Study Shows Aspirin Reduces Colorectal Cancer in Those at High Risk

Findings from the first large clinical trial of its kind indicate that taking high doses of aspirin daily for at least 2 years substantially reduces the risk of colorectal cancer among people at increased risk of the disease.

Conducted in the United Kingdom, the trial, dubbed CAPP2, showed a nearly 60 percent decrease in colorectal cancer incidence among men and women with hereditary nonpolyposis colon cancer (HNPCC), also known as Lynch syndrome, who took 600 mg of aspirin daily compared to a placebo. HNPCC is an inherited condition in which mutations in certain genes substantially increase the risk of colorectal cancer as well as several other cancers. People with hereditary mutations in these genes, which are involved in a type of DNA repair process called mismatch repair, typically begin developing cancer in their 40s; approximately 15 percent of all colorectal cancers are attributed to defects in mismatch repair genes.