Aspirin Use Shows Greater Benefit for Colon Cancer Risk Reduction in Individuals with Unhealthy Lifestyles: JAMA

The findings revealed that:

• The average baseline age of the 107,655 study participants—comprising 63,957 women from the Nurses' Health Study and 43,698 men from the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study—was 49.4 years.

• Over 3,038,215 person-years of follow-up, 2,544 new cases of colorectal cancer were recorded. The 10-year cumulative incidence of CRC was 1.98% for participants who used aspirin regularly, compared to 2.95% for those who did not, resulting in an absolute risk reduction (ARR) of 0.97%.

• The ARR from aspirin use was highest among individuals with the poorest lifestyle scores and decreased progressively with improving lifestyle scores.

• The 10-year absolute risk reduction for participants with lifestyle scores of 0 to 1 (indicating the least healthy lifestyles) was 1.28%. In comparison, the ARR for those with lifestyle scores of 4 to 5 (indicating the healthiest lifestyles) was 0.11%.

• The number needed to treat with aspirin over 10 years was 78 for participants with scores of 0 to 1, 164 for those with a score of 2, 154 for those with a score of 3, and 909 for those with scores of 4 to 5.

• Among the elements of the healthy lifestyle score, the most significant differences in absolute risk reduction (ARR) from aspirin use were found for body mass index and smoking.

“The researchers concluded that lifestyle risk factors are valuable for identifying individuals who have a more favorable risk-benefit profile for cancer prevention with aspirin use”, the researchers concluded.

Reference

Sikavi, D. R., Wang, K., Ma, W., Drew, D. A., Ogino, S., Giovannucci, E. L., Cao, Y., Song, M., Nguyen, L. H., & Chan, A. T. (2024). Aspirin Use and Incidence of Colorectal Cancer According to Lifestyle Risk. JAMA oncology, 10.1001/jamaoncol.2024.2503. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamaoncol.2024.2503