A new study of more than 4,000 women with breast cancer has shown that taking aspirin can double survival chances, and significantly reduce the risk of recurrence.
The staggering results were published on Tuesday by cancer specialists at the Harvard Medical School, and could offer unexpected hope to those diagnosed with the disease.
Dr Michelle Holmes, a professor of medicine at Harvard University said: "Women who took aspirin were 50 percent less likely to die from breast cancer than those who did not take it."
However Dr Holmes accepted that scientific basis for these remarkable results is something of a mystery. She added: "It is a surprisingly strong effect.
"We're appreciating more and more that cancer is an inflammatory disease, and aspirin is an anti-inflammatory. As a result, Aspirin can lower estrogens in the blood and prevent early spread of cancer."
Researchers evaluated more than 4,000 women diagnosed with stage 1, 2 or 3 breast cancer prior to 2002.
The study then analysed the patients health during a follow-up period, during which period the participants took regular doses of aspirin, in varying quantities.
The research period continued until June 2006, or until a woman's death. During the period 341 women died of breast cancer and 400 had recurrences of the disease.
Professor Holmes continued: "Statistically, the women who took it more days per week had a higher risk reduction.
"Aspirin cannot be considered a substitute for conventional cancer treatments, and taking aspirin does have negative effects in some.
"More study is definitely needed to establish the cause and effect of aspirin on breast cancer, but for now if a woman has breast cancer and is taking aspirin, she may take some comfort in knowing she might be doing something to help prevent her breast cancer from recurring."
The study, the largest of its kind, was published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology on 16th February.
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