Asprin and Colon Cancer

Low-dose aspirin may reduce risk of developing, dying from colon cancer.
ABC World News (10/21, story 8, 0:25, Sawyer) reported that the medical community has long understood that "at high doses, aspirin can cause side effects, like bleeding and stomach discomfort." Now, however, new research suggests that "low dose of aspirin a lot of people are already taking for their hearts may reduce the risk of colon cancer by a quarter and deaths from the disease by a third."
Indeed, "aspirin should not replace screening tests like colonoscopies, and because it has serious side effects...people should talk to their doctors before taking even a low dose of aspirin on a regular basis," the CBS Evening News (10/21, story 5, 0:30, Couric) reported. Still, "a daily dose of baby aspirin" over a long period of time may be the way to go.
The recommendation is based on European research in which investigators "pooled the 20-year results of four trials with more than 14,000 people," the Washington Post /AP (10/22, Cheng) reports. "Those studies were designed to study aspirin's use in preventing strokes, not colon cancer." The current study authors, however, "tracked who developed the disease through cancer registries and death certificates in Britain and Sweden, where the studies were done."
Specifically, "two of the trials randomized patients to 75 mg aspirin or placebo daily, a third compared 300 mg or 1,200 mg daily with placebo, and another compared 500 mg daily with no aspirin," while the "other trial randomized patients to 30 mg or 283 mg of aspirin daily," MedPage Today (10/21, Walsh) reported. "There were 391 cases of colorectal cancer and 240 deaths during a median follow-up of 18.3 years."