About 6% of Americans will develop colon
cancer in their life time. Several
randomized trials showed that taking aspirin once a day reduced in patient
taking aspirin for many years period.
The risk reduction seemed to improve as we take aspirin longer.
1121 patients with a history of adenomas were randomized
into aspirin (81 or 325 mg daily) or placebo. A follow-up colonoscopy was
performed at least one year after study entry in 1084 patients (97 percent).
The risk of recurrent adenomas was significantly lower in the 81 mg group
compared with placebo (38 versus 47 percent, RR 0.81, 95% CI 0.69-0.96). The
risk reduction was even greater for the development of advanced neoplasms (RR
0.59, 95% CI 0.38-0.92). For unclear reasons, the 325 mg dose was not associated
with a significantly reduced risk of adenoma recurrence
Another study was on 517 patients with a history of
colorectal cancer who were randomly assigned to aspirin (325
mg/day) or placebo. Recurrent adenomas
were observed significantly less often in the aspirin group (17 versus 25
percent, RR 0.65, 95% CI 0.46-0.91) during a colonoscopy performed at a median
of 13 months after randomization.
Another trial (945
patients with a history of an adenoma) were randomly assigned to aspirin (300
mg daily), folic acid supplementation
(0.5 mg daily), or placebo. Aspirin
supplementation but not folic acid was associated with a significantly reduced
risk of recurrent adenomas
There are controversies of the dose of
aspirin. In light of aspirin could
cause other complications (stomach/bowel bleeding, bleeding in the brain, stomach pain, etc), I
recommend taking 81mg (baby aspirin) aspirin a day. Be extra careful if you take any blood thinners (Plavix, coumadin, etc) because the combinations of aspirin and other blood thinners may cause excess bleeding. Do talk to your doctor before you start this. Buy the generic aspirin - cheaper and equally effective.
Reference:
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Uptodate. Accessed 12-2-12
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