Taking aspirin following colorectal cancer diagnosis may reduce mortality risk, research suggests.

Harvard scientists, alongside researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, "analyzed data from two large ongoing studies, the Nurses' Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study." In total, they looked at data on "nearly 1,300 people with colorectal cancer who'd been followed for an average of 12 years. All the patients in the study had surgery for colon cancer and many also had chemotherapy." The editor-in-chief of the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Daniel G. Haller, MD, of the University of Pennsylvania Cancer Center, says that "they (the data) are not persuasive because, as observational studies, they do not rise to the level needed to change guidelines," Comment: This will lead to the newest fad in use of aspirin which has many side effects, including spontaneous bleeding.