People who are overweight may cut their risk of cancer by taking regular aspirin, researchers said last night.
Tests on patients with a particular condition, Lynch Syndrome, found that aspirins almost entirely counteracted the increased risk linked to obesity.
The researchers at Newcastle University, UK, believe their findings may apply to all people with obesity.
One possibility is that aspirin reduces risk simply because it usually reduces inflammation in the body.
The study involved nearly 1,000 patients with the disease, studied in 43 centres in 16 countries for periods of up to ten years.
Lynch Syndrome is a genetic disorder which places its victims at high risk of developing cancer. About 50% of patients with the disease develop cancer, mainly in the bowel and the womb.
The research, reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, found that patients who were not taking aspirins and who were obese were nearly three times as likely as others to develop bowel cancer.
Researcher Professor John Mathers said: “For those with Lynch Syndrome, we found that every unit of BMI above what is considered healthy increased the risk of bowel cancer by 7%.
"What is surprising is that even in people with a genetic predisposition for cancer, obesity is also a driver of the disease. Indeed, the obesity-associated risk was twice as great for people with Lynch Syndrome as for the general population.
“The lesson for all of us is that everyone should try to maintain a healthy weight and for those already obese the best thing is to lose weight. However, for many patients this can be very difficult so a simple aspirin may be able to help this group.”
Fellow researcher Professor Sir John Burn said people considering taking aspirin to prevent cancer should check with their GP first.
He said: “This is important for people with Lynch Syndrome but affects the rest of us too.
"Lots of people struggle with their weight and this suggests the extra cancer risk can be cancelled by taking an aspirin.
“This research adds to the growing body of evidence which links an increased inflammatory process to an increased risk of cancer. Obesity increases the inflammatory response."
Obesity, Aspirin, and Risk of Colorectal Cancer in Carriers of Hereditary Colorectal Cancer: A Prospective Investigation in the CAPP2 Study, Journal of Clinical Oncology 17 August 2015; doi: 10.1200/JCO.2014.58.9952
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