Healthy people can lower their chance of contracting bowel cancer by taking aspirin, scientists say.

Research shows taking the drug regularly cuts cases of the disease by a quarter and deaths by a third.

The amount needed is small, just 75mg, the dose taken by millions of heart attack survivors to prevent a repeat attack.

The study of 14,000 people is the first to assess the long-term effectiveness of aspirin against bowel cancer, with 20 years of follow-up.

Taking the drug for five years provides protection for a much longer period, says a report in The Lancet medical journal.

Aspirin blocks the effects of proteins that help trigger inflammation and are associated with a number of different types of cancer.

Professor Peter Rothwell, of the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, and Oxford University, who led the study, said the findings now tip the balance in favour of regular aspirin use.

He added that preventive drug therapy could complement the Government’s £60million plan to bring in a new screening programme for bowel cancer.

Previous research has suggested that people taking aspirin were less likely to develop bowel, breast and possibly other cancers, including prostate.

Many healthy middle-aged people take low-dose aspirin every day as an ‘insurance policy’ while others take it to combat heart problems.

There has been pressure for ‘blanket prescribing’ of the drug to healthy middle-aged people, but potentially dangerous side-effects of bleeding in the gut and stomach ulcers have cast doubt over the net benefit.

Mark Flannagan, chief executive of Beating Bowel Cancer, said ‘These are very positive results.

'This was a big study over a long period of time and reinforces the message that aspirin may be important in significantly reducing bowel cancer.’

Each year, around 38,600 people in Britain are diagnosed with bowel cancer and the disease causes 16,000 deaths a year.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/articl...z135Eze6zF