Re: Fortune Magazine Story on NSAIDS, Statins, Aging

Tue, 28 Oct 2003 09:59:18 GMT in article
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Matti Narkia
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

>As a contrast a new epidemiological study reported in the yesterdays news
>found that regular long-term aspirin use is associated with increased
>pancreatic cancer risk in women:
>
>Daily Aspirin Use Linked with Pancreatic Cancer 
><http://dailynews.att.net/cgi-bin/news?e=pri&dt=031027&cat=news&st=newshealthcanceraspirindc>
>(http://tinyurl.com/snmj)
><http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=healthNews&storyID=3697657&section=news>
>(http://tinyurl.com/snmd)
><http://edition.cnn.com/2003/HEALTH/10/27/cancer.aspirin.reut/>
>(http://tinyurl.com/snmi)
>
>    "... The study of 88,000 nurses found that those who took two or
>    more aspirins a week for 20 years or more had a 58 percent higher
>    risk of pancreatic cancer.
>
>    "Apart from smoking, this one of the few risk factors that have been
>    identified for pancreatic cancer," Dr. Eva Schernhammer of Harvard
>    Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, who led
>    the study, told a news conference.
>
>    "Initially we expected that aspirin would protect against pancreatic
>    cancer, especially since its preventive role in colorectal cancer
>    has been well documented. However, now it appears that we need to
>    examine the relationship more thoroughly," Schernhammer added in a
>    statement. ..."
>
>
>This was only an epidemiological study - although quite a large one - so
>only a statistical association, not a causal relation, can be concluded. And
>for some other cancers, colon cancer for example, results have been the
>other way round. Still, it may give some reason for concern.
>
On the other hand another large (although not as large as this new one)
epidemiological study last year found that aspirin use is associated with a
_reduced_ risk of pancreatic cancer:

Anderson KE, Johnson TW, Lazovich D, Folsom AR.  
 Association between nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug use and the
incidence of pancreatic cancer.
J Natl Cancer Inst. 2002 Aug 7;94(15):1168-71. 
PMID: 12165642 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] 
<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=12165642&dopt=Abstract>

    "Laboratory studies indicate that nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory
    drugs (NSAIDs) may inhibit pancreatic cancer, but epidemiologic data
    to support this finding are limited. We conducted a prospective
    study from 1992 through 1999 among 28 283 postmenopausal women who
    lived in Iowa to examine the association between the self-reported
    use of aspirin and other NSAIDs and the incidence of pancreatic
    cancer. Eighty incident cases of pancreatic cancer were identified
    during 7 years of follow-up. The multivariate-adjusted relative risk
    of pancreatic cancer associated with any current use of aspirin
    versus no use was 0.57 (95% confidence interval = 0.36 to 0.90).
    There was a trend of decreasing risk of pancreatic cancer incidence
    with increasing frequency of aspirin use per week (P(trend) =.005).
    Nonaspirin NSAID use was not associated with incident pancreatic
    cancer. These data indicate that aspirin might be chemopreventive
    for pancreatic cancer."


Go figure.

-- 
Matti Narkia