Regular Aspirin Use for CRC Prevention Found to Benefit Unhealthy Adults Most: Daily Dose

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Patient Care brings primary care clinicians a lot of medical news every day—it’s easy to miss an important study. The Daily Dose provides a concise summary of one of the website's leading stories you may not have seen.

On August 20, 2024, we reported on a study published in JAMA Oncology that examined whether aspirin use is associated with the risk of colorectal cancer (CRC) across different lifestyle risk factors, including body mass index (BMI), smoking, alcohol intake, physical activity, and diet.

The study

Researchers conducted a prospective cohort study among 107 655 participants (mean age, 49.4 years)—63 957 women who participated in the Nurses’ Health Study and 43 698 men who participated in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. They defined regular aspirin use as ≥2 standard tablets (325 mg) per week.

Lifestyle scores were calculated based on BMI, alcohol consumption, physical activity, diet, and smoking with scores ranging from 0 to 5 (higher score corresponding to a healthier lifestyle.

The findings

Regular aspirin users had a lower 10-year cumulative incidence of CRC (1.98%, 95% CI 1.44-2.51) compared to nonregular users (2.95%, 95% CI 2.31-3.58). This corresponded to an absolute risk reduction (ARR) of 0.97%, according to the results.

Researchers observed a progressive decrease in the ARR associated with aspirin use among participants with healthier lifestyle scores (P < .001 for additive interaction). For participants with lifestyle scores of 0 or 1, the 10-year ARR was 1.28% compared to 0.11% for those with scores of 4 to 5.

Authors' comment

"The findings of the study suggest that lifestyle risk factors may be useful to identify individuals who may have a more favorable risk-benefit profile for cancer prevention with aspirin."

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