Aspirin to aid cancer recovery and survival
Aspirin is a drug that reduces pain, fever, inflammation, and blood clotting.
A diagnosis of cancer can come with an increased risk of a heart attack or stroke. Within 6 months of a diagnosis, the risk was more than twice that seen in people without cancer. The greatest excess risk of stroke or heart attack was seen in people with lung cancer or with more advanced cancers, according to this study.
Studies: Aspirin use in cancer treatment
2026 update: Aspirin and metastatic Colorectal cancer
A 2026 phase 3 randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial conducted at 14 centres in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark analysed 428 patients who had undergone curative-intent treatment for colorectal cancer liver metastases. 217 patients received 160 mg/day aspirin, and 211 patients took a placebo for up to 3 years or until recurrence, death, or treatment discontinuation. The study found that aspirin did not improve disease-free survival and was associated with lower overall survival and more serious adverse events. These findings do not support routine use of aspirin after curative-intent treatment of colorectal cancer liver metastases.
This 2023 Meta Analysis says:
Meta-analyses of 118 observational studies of mortality in cancer patients give evidence consistent with reductions of about 20% in mortality associated with aspirin use. The study concluded: A major strength of the case for the promotion of aspirin as a treatment of cancer lies in the consistent evidence of a reduction in the thromboembolic complications of cancer and in the consistent evidence of a reduction in metastatic cancer spread.
A 2013 study published in PubMed concludes “data from randomised clinical studies have shown that aspirin prevents the development of malignancy, and it also appears to decrease the development and spread of metastases.
This study found:
The evidence we present from a systematic overview of the literature gives support to the use of aspirin as an additional treatment of cancer. The evidence is limited, and while it is encouraging in the case of bowel cancer, there is insufficient evidence to dismiss a role for aspirin as an adjunct treatment of cancers other than colorectal. In fact, its use can be justified on the basis of its likely benefit on outcomes other than death, including its probable reduction in metastatic spread and its reduction in vascular disease events, including venous thromboembolism.
Dipyridamole enhances Aspirin
This study found that dipyridamole combined with aspirin had a better inhibitory effect on CRC than either monotherapy alone. The enhanced anti-cancer effect of the combined use of dipyridamole with aspirin was found to rely on the induction of an overwhelmed endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and subsequent pro-apoptotic unfolded protein response (UPR), which was different from the anti-platelet effect.
Conclusions: Our data indicate that the anti-cancer effect of aspirin against CRC may be enhanced by combined administration with dipyridamole. In case further clinical studies confirm our findings, these may be repurposed as adjuvant agents.
Study: Here we report, for the first time, that aspirin treatment of human glioblastoma cancer (GBM) stem cells, a small population responsible for tumor progression and recurrence, is associated with reduced cell proliferation and motility.
Study: The present study highlights the suggested preventive and therapeutic effects of aspirin in PDA [Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma] by demonstrating the elimination of CSC [cancer stem cell] features, inflammatory factors and desmoplasia.
Source: MD Anderson Cancer Center
A study of recovering breast cancer patients found those who took a daily aspirin for three to five years were 60% less likely to suffer from a recurrence of the disease. The aspirin swallowers also were 71% less likely to die as a result of breast cancer.
In addition, aspirin may slow the spread of lung cancer by 20% to 30%. And, taking low-dose aspirin each day for more than 10 years could drop stomach cancer deaths by 31%. That’s not to say everyone should start swallowing a daily aspirin. The drug comes with some very real drawbacks — most notably an increased risk for internal bleeding.
Aspirin not associated with reduced mortality in Lung cancer
In this study a total of 14,735 lung cancer patients were identified during the study period. In analysis of 3,635 lung cancer patients, there was no suggestion of an association between low-dose aspirin use after diagnosis and cancer-specific mortality… Similarly, no association was evident for low-dose aspirin use before diagnosis and cancer-specific mortality… Associations were comparable by duration of use and for all-cause mortality.
Conclusion: In this population-based study, low-dose aspirin use was not associated with an improvement in cancer survival in a large cohort of cancer-registry confirmed lung cancer patients.
Another study found:
…aspirin use after a cancer diagnosis improves both cancer mortality and overall survival.
Study: Therefore, cotreatment of aspirin and chemotherapeutic regimen can be a potentially safe and attractive treatment strategy to tackle cancer in a multipronged approach, targeting both CSC [cancer stem cells] and NSCC [non-stem cancer cell] populations.
Study: In summary, this study showed the potential of aspirin to sensitize stemness of H460R cells and overcome cisplatin resistance in lung cancer. This combinatorial strategy could be effective for treatment‐resistant lung carcinomas.
Study: We have provided new evidence that aspirin attenuates CSC [cancer stem cell] properties through down-regulation of NANOG, suggesting aspirin as a promising therapeutic agent for colorectal cancer treatment.
Aspirin Found to Prevent Death from Prostate Cancer
Source: Oncology Times
Regular aspirin use after diagnosis of prostate cancer is associated with a decreased risk of prostate cancer mortality and metastases, according to new data from the large observational Physicians’ Health Study (1982-2009) reported at the 2016 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium (Abstract 306).
With 27 years of follow-up on 22,071 male physicians enrolled in the study, 3,193 had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. Of those, 403 developed metastatic disease or died from prostate cancer, said Christopher Brian Allard, MD, Urologic Oncology Fellow at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, the study’s first author.
“Among men with prostate cancer, regular aspirin use after diagnosis was associated with a 39 percent decreased risk of dying from prostate cancer,” said Brian Allard, MD, Urologic Oncology Fellow at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, the study’s first author.
An article in Oncology Times reported on a study involving 3,193 patients: Regular aspirin use after diagnosis of prostate cancer is associated with a decreased risk of prostate cancer mortality and metastases, according to new data from the large observational Physicians’ Health Study (1982-2009) reported at the 2016 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium (Abstract 306). “Among men with prostate cancer, regular aspirin use after diagnosis was associated with a 39 percent decreased risk of dying from prostate cancer,” Laboratory studies show that Aspirin can target cancer stem cells.
Off-label Drugs for cancer recovery and survival
Last updated April 2026