Post-diagnosis initiation of aspirin use in women with breast cancer was not linked to a decline in breast cancer-specific mortality, according to an article published online in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.
The study included women between the ages of 50 to 80 who were diagnosed with stage I-III breast cancer. The women were chosen from Ireland’s National Cancer Registry (N = 4,540) and the information about the initiation of the post-diagnosis aspirin use was gathered from linked national prescription refill data (N =764).
Modified hazard ratios (HRs) were approximated for correlations between de novo post-diagnosis aspirin use and all-cause, breast cancer-specific mortality.
Results revealed that the median time from breast cancer diagnosis to de novo aspirin initiation was 1.8 years. A majority of the women (95%) was taking less than 150 mg/day and the days’ supply of aspirin received had a mean value of 631.
No relationship was found between de novo aspirin use and breast cancer specific mortality (HR, 0.98; 95% CI:, 0.74, 1.30).
Similarly, no association was found in women taking high-intensity doses of aspirin (HR, 1.03; 95% CI: 0.72, 1.47) or women initiating de novo aspirin in the 1.5 years after diagnosis (HR, 1.04; 95% CI: 0.77, 1.40).
This study suggests further analysis and understanding of aspirin’s mechanism of action be conducted to help design future studies in breast cancer.
Post-diagnosis initiation of aspirin use in women with breast cancer was not linked to a decline in breast cancer-specific mortality.
Aspirin use has been associated with significant reductions in breast cancer-related mortality in some observational studies. However, these studies included women who initiated aspirin use before breast cancer diagnosis.