Aspirin, Ibuprofen, and Cancer Prevention

I'm thrilled that BigThink.com saw fit to headline my Aspirin for Cancer Prevention story today. People need to know what Big Pharma (and government agencies charged with public health) won't tell them: that the scientific evidence for anti-cancer effects of ibuprofen, aspirin, and other NSAIDs is, at this point, solid beyond reproach.

This is what cancer prevention looks like.

Drug companies and government won't tell people the facts about NSAIDs because the cancer treatment industry is a multi-billion-dollar profit-making machine too big to undercut with news of cheap, effective, well-tolerated, widely available preventive measures.

As I've reported previously, since president Nixon declared war on cancer in 1971, we (in the U.S.) have spent the equivalent of approximately $10,000 in research dollars for every single person who has died of cancer in the last 40 years. One would think, given this backdrop, any drug or substance that promised even a 5% reduction in this Top Two leading cause of death would be heralded as a major advance. Not so.

The Harris meta-analysis (involving 91 epidemiological studies) published in Oncology Reports in 2005 found risk reductions, for daily takers of aspirin, of as much as 63% for colon cancer, 73% for esophageal cancer, 62% for stomach, 39% for breast, and 36% for lung cancer. If these rates are anywhere near true, the mere act of not publicizing this data means public health agencies (never mind the drug companies) are guilty of negligent homicide.

Please tell your friends and family and anyone else whose health you care about to consider the evidence for themselves and draw their own conclusions. Yes, there's a risk of gastrointestinal bleeding with NSAIDs. Yes, there's a risk of tinnitus if you take too much of these drugs. (No one's suggesting you take more than a minimal dose.) But the risk of not taking them is far worse. Don't you think?