The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 275 No 7365 p281
3 September 2005

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· Research
· Wholesalers
· Original pack dispensing
· Controlled drugs
· Prescribing
· NICE
· Reciprocity
· Dermatology
· Birdsgrove House
· Registration examination (2)
· New pharmacy contract

Letters to the Editor

Research

Misleading headline regarding use of aspirin against colon cancer

From Dr B. P. Curwain, MRPharmS

I fear your headline “study supports aspirin’s protective role in colon cancer” (PJ, 27 August, p244) may be misleading. The part of the nurses’ health study referred to provided simply observational data. Readers will remember that it was observational studies that led the medical establishment to believe, wrongly, that hormonal replacement therapy (HRT) would protect women from cardiovascular disease. What we need is data from randomised trials. Fortunately we have some.¹

Between 1992 and 1995 nearly 40,000 women were randomised to receive low dose aspirin or placebo. Average follow up was 10.1 years. The aspirin had no effect on cancer rates, cancer deaths or all-cause mortality.

In general, the only real value of observational data is to inform the design of randomised trials. Although the taking of aspirin and other non steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs has been associated with reduced cancer rates, the drugs themselves are almost certainly not the cause of the discrepancy, just as we saw with HRT.

Brian Curwain
Chief Pharmacist
New Forest Primary Care Trust

Reference

1. Cook, NR, Lee IM, Gaziano JM, Gordon D, Ridker PM, Manson JE et al. Low-dose aspirin in the primary prevention of cancer: the Women’s Health Study: a randomized controlled trial. JAMA 2005;294:47–55.

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