An Aspirin a day keeps Cancer away???!!!

Well, it could be someday!!

Recently a report published in New Scientist indicates that a study was conducted by Grahame Hardie at the University of Dundee, UK; to investigate aspirin’s unexpected side-effects. He applied salicylate to cultured human cells derived from the kidney and discovered that the drug activated AMPK, an enzyme involved in cell growth and metabolism that has been found to play a role in cancer and diabetes.

With this study researchers have shed light on a mystifying side-effect of taking aspirin: the drug apparently lowers a person’s chances of developing some forms of cancer. Exactly why a key ingredient in the painkiller — salicylate — shows such potential as an anti-cancer treatment has remained unclear since long, but a new study in mice has offered clues.

“This is an ancient herbal remedy which has probably always been part of the human diet,” said Hardie. “But despite that we’re still finding out how it works.”

Co-author Greg Steinberg of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, then tested high doses of salicylate on different types of mice. The study has successfully separated aspirin's pain-relieving effects from its cancer protection, paving the way for new anti-cancer drugs that have lesser side-effects than aspirin.

Aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid) is one of oldest drugs known to humans. Plant extracts, including willow bark and spiraea, of which salicylic acid was the active ingredient, had been known to help alleviate headaches, pains, and fevers since antiquity. Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, left historical records describing the use of powder made from the bark and leaves of the willow tree to help these symptoms (By the way, Hippocrates lived between 460 BC and 377 BC)

It was first manufactured by a French chemist, Charles Frederic Gerhardt, in 1853 and later in 1897, chemists working at Bayer AG, synthetically produced acetylsalicylic acid in their labs and this new molecule was then christened as Aspirin by Bayer AG.

Aspirin- 3 D Ball image

Aspirin- Structural Formula

Aspirin has really been a ‘wonder-drug’ for long time since it has been used extensively in myriad of indications such as headache, migraine, common cold, acute rheumatic fever and also in dreaded coronary artery disease, and acute myocardial infarction.

In addition to these uses, Aspirin has been theorized to reduce cataract formation in diabetic patients.

The role of aspirin in reducing the incidence of many forms of cancer has also been widely studied. New evidence from America claims aspirin could be the latest weapon against lung cancer. Scientists from New York University School of Medicine claim that the painkiller could cut the chance of developing lung cancer by 50 per cent.

The study, published in the British Journal of Cancer, is the first evidence to suggest that aspirin can keep lung cancer at bay - even among smokers. Researchers questioned more than 14,000 women about long-term aspirin use. They compared those who went on to develop lung cancer with those who stayed in good health.

The researchers found that taking aspirin three or more times a week for at least six months was enough to reduce the risk of developing lung cancer by a third.

Three new studies led by researchers at Oxford University also raise the possibility that a daily low dose of the drug could be effective, not just as a preventative measure, but as an additional treatment for those with cancer.

It follows the finding that aspirin can reduce the chances of tumours spreading to other parts of the body.

The three papers by Professor Peter Rothwell of the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences and colleagues are published, two in the medical journal The Lancet and the other in The Lancet Oncology.

Professor Rothwell says: 'We are not at the stage of recommending aspirin use in everybody, but the guidelines on use of aspirin in the healthy middle-aged population certainly need to be updated in order to take into account the effects on the risk and outcome of cancer as well as on the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

‘What we have now shown is that aspirin also has short-term effects, which are manifest after only 2-3 years,’ says Professor Rothwell. ‘In particular, we show that aspirin reduces the likelihood that cancers will spread to distant organs by about 40-50%. This is important because it is this process of spread of cancer, or “metastasis”, which most commonly kills people with cancer.’

This reduction in the risk of a cancer spreading suggests that starting taking aspirin after being diagnosed could be beneficial – assuming that the cancer has not already spread.

Professor Rothwell says: ‘No drug has been shown before to prevent distant metastasis and so these findings should focus future research on this crucial aspect of treatment of patients with cancer that hasn’t already spread.’

So is the time ripe enough to tweak an old adage ‘An apple a day keeps doctor away’ to ‘An Aspirin a day keeps cancer away’...

....We will have to wait a little for the confirmation.

Note: Do not consume Aspirin regularly without consulting your doctor.