NEJM hammer! Ten years of big data in 50,000 people has found that low-dose aspirin reduces the risk of liver cancer.

March 18, 2020 / / -- Adults at high risk of chronic viral hepatitis are less likely to develop liver cancer or die from liver-related diseases if they take low-dose aspirin for a long time.
the study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, was published by the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and the University of Sweden. A team led by researchers at Rebro University Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital completed the work.
If the United States and European countries, liver cancer and liver disease mortality rates are rising at an alarming rate," said tracey Simon, lead author of the study and a researcher in the Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Massachusetts General Hospital.
, there are no definitive treatments to prevent the development of liver cancer or reduce the risk of liver-related death.
" Photo Source: Marek Skupinski For analysis, researchers examined the registration information of 50,275 adults with chronic viral hepatitis from Sweden.
chronic viral hepatitis is a liver infection caused by the hepatitis B or C virus and is the most common risk factor for liver cancer.
Over a 10-year period, 4.0 percent of patients taking small doses of aspirin (less than 163 milligrams per day) developed liver cancer, and 8.3 percent of patients who did not take aspirin had liver cancer.
who took aspirin had a 31 percent lower relative risk of liver cancer.
important, studies have shown that the longer a person takes low-dose aspirin, the greater the benefit.
Compared to short-term use (3 months to 1 year), the risk of death from liver cancer in people with 1-3 years was reduced by 10%, the risk of death from liver cancer in people with 3-5 years was reduced by 34%, and the risk of death from liver cancer in people who were used for more than 5 years was reduced by 43%.
In addition, 11.0 percent of patients who took aspirin for more than 10 years died from liver-related diseases, compared with 17.9 percent of those who did not take aspirin, which meant that patients who took aspirin had a 27 percent lower relative risk.
does not increase the risk of internal bleeding regardless of sex, severity of hepatitis, or type of hepatitis B or C virus, and the risk of bleeding in people taking aspirin (a concern when taking aspirin for long periods of time) does not increase significantly.
"This is the first large-scale national study to demonstrate that aspirin use can significantly reduce the long-term risk of liver cancer and liver-related mortality," said Jonas F. Ludvigsson, senior author of the study and professor of medical epidemiology and biostatists at karolinska College.
that a prospective randomized controlled trial is needed to test the efficacy of aspirin in patients with liver disease.
() Reference: Low-dose aspirin linked to reduced liver cancer risk 2) Tracey G. Simon et al. Association of Aspirin with Hepatocellular Carcinoma and Liver-Related Mortality, New England Journal of Medicine (2020). DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1912035.