Aspirin daily reduces breast cancer risk

News sources reported a new study that found women who took aspirin, known as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) daily were 16% less likely to develop breast cancer.


Researchers studied the questionnaire responses from a previous study conducted in 2003 and used the answers to relate the use of NSAIDs to the chance of developing breast cancer. They concluded that "breast cancer risk was not significantly associated with NSAID use, but daily aspirin use was associated with a modest reduction in oestrogen-receptor (ER)-positive breast cancer." However they suggested further research is required as other studies have shown conflicting results.


Source: "Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and breast cancer risk in the National Institutes of Health–AARP Diet and Health Study" Breast Cancer Research 2008, 10:R38doi:10.1186/bcr2089 ( free f/t)

Coffee reduces liver cancer risk

Italian researchers carried out a meta-analysis of 10 published studies on the relation between coffee drinking and risk of hepatocelluar carcinoma, a common type of liver cancer. The studies included participants in Greece, Italy and Japan, some with liver cancer and many without.

They found a 41 % reduction in the risk for liver cancer among coffee drinkers compared with those who never drank coffee. The researchers said that the studies from Europe and Japan showed the same relationship between coffee drinking and reduced liver cancer risk suggested consistency of these results. However, they cautioned that it is difficult to "derive a causal inference on the basis of observational studies alone."

The study "Coffee drinking and hepatocellular carcinoma risk: A meta-analysis" is published in the journal Hepatology, Volume 46, Issue 2 (August 2007), pp 430-435. Read the abstract.

1.5m misdiagnosed heart disease risk

A BMJ study "Derivation and validation of QRISK, a new cardiovascular disease risk score for the United Kingdom: prospective open cohort study" (BMJ Online First) that tracked 1.28 million healthy adults aged 35-74 over a period of 12 years and used GP records from 318 practices found that the traditional score over- estimated cardiovascular disease risk by 35%.
It suggests the current estimates of the number of UK adults at risk of cardiovascular disease are 1.5 million too high.

The study found that white middle-aged men had a lower risk than previously thought and women from poorer backgrounds had a significantly higher risk. It also found that 1 in 3 women, (not 1 in 4 as previously thought ) in their 60s are at risk of heart disease. This has raised the concern of " potentially missing the right people for treatment" and the possibility of over-prescription of statins to many patients who do not need it.

The authors argued that over-predicted estimates of heart disease were derived from the out-dated American model which involves a score based on smoking, blood pressure and cholesterol, along with age and sex, but the the new score used by the BMJ study also takes into account social deprivation, genetic factors and weight, reducing estimates. Read more...