Inexpensive medicine can help cancer patients

llustration pictureOslo. llustration picture.Photo: Thomas Winje Øijord / NTB scanpix

An inexpensive substance used in painkillers, can reduce the risk of death for some cancer patients, according to a new Norwegian research.

The analgesic and anti-inflammatory drug  acetylsalisylacid is found in wellknown drugs such as Dispril and Aspirin. In proper doses the drug can reduce the risk of death for patients with colorectal cancer by up to 25 percent, the newspaper VG reports.
This finding comes from a Norwegian study published in the renowned journal Journal of Clinical Oncology this week.
– We can confirm that people who are already diagnosed with bowel cancer and take aspirin, are showing better survival rates than those who do not  take this medicine, says Professor Kjetil Tasker, director of the Biotechnology Centre and the Norwegian Centre for Molecular Medicine. Together with a group of researchers at the University of Oslo, he is responsible for this study. Aspirin is an inexpensive option with few side effects compared to other cancer drugs, said Tasker.
– If the intake of such a simple and affordable medicine can contribute to significant reduction of relapse after surgery for bowel cancer, it is very good news says Secretary General Anne Lise Ryel at the Cancer Society.

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today

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