Low-Dose Aspirin and Mortality After Prostate Cancer Diagnosis
Posted: Wednesday, May 22, 2019
Charlotte Skriver, MSc, of the Danish Cancer Society Research Center, and colleagues did not find convincing evidence of an overall protective effect of postdiagnosis low-dose aspirin use on prostate cancer mortality, based on a nationwide study of patients with prostate cancer in Denmark published in Annals of Oncology. However, for extended exposure periods, their findings indicate a possible inverse association between low-dose aspirin use and prostate cancer mortality 5 years after cancer diagnosis.
The study followed 29,136 patients with prostate cancer, 24.6% of whom took low-dose aspirin within 1 year of being diagnosed. The researchers defined postdiagnosis low-dose aspirin use as two or more prescriptions filled after prostate cancer diagnosis and nonuse as fewer than two prescriptions filled. Aspirin use was assessed within 1 year for the main analysis and 5 or 7.5 years in the secondary analysis.
Compared with nonusers of aspirin, patients who took low-dose aspirin had a fully adjusted hazard ratio of 0.95 for prostate cancer mortality and a fully adjusted hazard ratio of 1.12 for other-cause mortality. In the 5-year assessment, aspirin use was associated with a 9% lower prostate cancer mortality and a 6% higher other-cause mortality. In the 7.5-year assessment, the prostate cancer mortality went down 16%, whereas other-cause mortality increased by 8%.
Although the study findings did not support an overall effect of postdiagnosis low-dose aspirin use on prostate cancer mortality, low-dose aspirin use might be inversely associated with prostate cancer mortality after 5 years from cancer diagnosis, the investigators proposed.
Disclosure: The study authors’ disclosure information may be found at annals.org.
