Colorectal cancer, how does aspirin help prevent the development and progression of this disease? | Health | Magazine

Long-term daily use aspirin may help prevent the development and progression of colorectal cancer, although the mechanisms involved are still unclear. Research has shown that aspirin may have a protective effect by stimulating certain aspects of the body’s immune response against cancer cells.

To study the effect of aspirin (a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug) on Colorectal cancerResearchers in Italy obtained tissue samples from 238 patients who underwent surgery for colorectal cancer between 2015 and 2019.

12% of them were aspirin users. And compared with tissue samples from patients who did not take aspirin, the first showed less spread of cancer to lymph nodes and greater infiltration of immune cells into the tumor.

Laboratory analysis showed that exposing the cells to aspirin caused increased expression of the CD80 protein in some immune cells, which improved the cells’ ability to repair themselves. alert other immune cells to the presence of tumor-associated proteins.

In support of this finding, the researchers found that in patients with rectal cancer, those taking aspirin had higher expression of CD80 in healthy rectal tissue, suggesting proimmune surveillance effect of aspirin.

“Our research shows an additional mechanism for cancer prevention or aspirin therapy, in addition to its classical pharmacological mechanism, which involves inhibition of inflammation,” said lead investigator Marco Scarpa, MD, PhD, of the University of Padova.

“Aspirin is absorbed in the colon largely due to passive diffusion. Its absorption is linear and depends on the concentration throughout the intestine and in the rectum; the concentration of aspirin taken orally may be significantly lower than in the rest of the colon.

What should you do if you want to take advantage of the effects of aspirin against colorectal cancer? “(Clinicians) need to think about how to ensure that aspirin reaches the colorectal tract in adequate doses for it to be effective,” Dr. Scarpa explained.

These data suggest that regular aspirin use may play an active role in improving immunosurveillance against colorectal cancer.

The study was funded by the Italian Association for Research on Cancer (AIRC) and was carried out mainly at the University Hospital of Padova. Patients were included in the Metacr section of the immunological microenvironment in a multicenter observational study. Treatment of rectal adenocarcinoma (IMMUNOREACT 8).

The results were published in the peer-reviewed journal Cancer. American Cancer Society.

Fountain: Ottavia De Simoni, Melania Scarpa, Ignazio Castagliuolo, Astghik Stepanyan and others in the Journal of the American Cancer Society, published April 22, 2024. IMMUNOREACT 7: Regular aspirin use is associated with activation of immune surveillance in colorectal cancer.