February 2010 Archives
You may have seen the latest results of a long-term Nurses’ Health Study showing that low doses of aspirin may prevent a breast cancer recurrence. Specifically, the study found that women who took aspirin two to five days a week had a 60 percent reduced risk of their cancer spreading and a 71 percent lower risk of breast cancer death. Taking aspirin less frequently than two days or more frequently than five days was not as beneficial in reducing risk of cancer spread or death. Most of these women were taking low-dose aspirin to prevent heart attacks and stroke. While the dosage wasn’t tracked, most likely it was 81mg, the typical low maintenance dose for maintaining heart health, equal to one baby aspirin.
This is an exciting development worth exploring!
If you are a breast cancer survivor, you should consult your oncologist before beginning baby aspirin therapy. One commentator, PJ Hamel, suggests the following (http://www.healthcentral.com/breast-cancer/c/78/104011/recurrence?ic=6006):
•If you’re in active treatment (surgery, chemo, radiation), don’t self-medicate with aspirin; it can interfere with your other treatments.
•If you’re on long-term hormone therapy or past all cancer treatment, ask your doctor about the risks and benefits of aspirin in general.
•If your doctor feels you’re at minimal risk for adverse side effects from aspirin and you understand those risks yourself, and accept them – then you might consider a low dose.
I believe this is sound advice. At my primary doctor’s urging I have been taking baby aspirin seven days a week for the past two years to maintain a healthy heart. Perhaps I shall cut down to weekday doses, since the study suggests that 2-5 days of treatment is optimal. This reassuring news is timely to me, because I go off my aromatase inhibitor (Arimidex) in a week.
A report on this study can be found at: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61F56Q20100216.
Blessings to you all!
Jan
This month the journal The Lancet Oncology published a study showing that fewer, larger doses of radiation were just as effective as standard radiation in treating women with breast cancer. The shorter dosing regimen (over the course of three rather than five weeks) produced fewer skin changes in the patients. As a recipient of radiotherapy I am happy to see this development. Getting radiation completed in three weeks with fewer side effects would be a clear advancement in treatment if adopted as standard practice. I wonder if this protocol would reduce the risk of lymphedema in patients whose lymph nodes are radiated. Read all about it at: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5jORRS6h_Enrx78h0gkS5U6qSAs4g.
Happy belated Valentine’s Day,
Jan
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