Aspirin can help people with ovarian cancer live longer.

Aspirin is a common over-the-counter medicine that is used to treat moderate fevers, headaches, and in some cases, heart attacks in people who have already had them.

A new study from the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute and published in JNCI: Journal of the Cancer Institute says that taking low doses of aspirin every day could be one way to treat ovarian cancer.

Even though no one knows how to prevent ovarian cancer yet, it is important to know what treatments are out there. Checking for ovarian cancer at home is also important.

How did the study take place?

The study kept track of more than 900 Australian women who had just been told they had ovarian cancer. Then, each participant wrote down how often they used non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as aspirin.

Azam Majidi, PhD, who led the study, said that people who took NSAIDs at least four times a week for a year after being diagnosed lived longer than those who didn’t. Most of the time, women who took NSAIDs took low-dose aspirin every day.

According to Health News, Majidi said, “Our findings suggest that frequent NSAID use might improve survival for women with ovarian cancer, whether they start taking the drugs before or after diagnosis.”

It can be hard to spot the first signs of ovarian cancer, and more than 80% of women who are first diagnosed with the disease are later re-diagnosed. But the latest research shows that women who regularly took NSAIDs also had a later recurrence.

Majidi said that these results give hope that low-dose aspirin can help people with ovarian cancer around the world live longer while researchers keep looking for better ways to treat ovarian cancer. But she stressed that not everyone should take aspirin, so women shouldn’t start taking it without first talking to their doctor.

“We found that the difference would mean that people would live an average of 2.5 months longer after being diagnosed. Even though this may not seem like much, it is a big deal for ovarian cancer. Most of the time, the disease is found late, when the outlook is bad and there aren’t many treatment options.”

What is cancer of the ovaries?
Ovarian cancer starts in the ovaries and spreads to other parts of the body. It is often mistaken for uterine fibroids, which are noncancerous growths in the uterus. It usually needs surgery and chemotherapy, and in its early stages, it usually doesn’t cause any symptoms. Early signs of ovarian cancer are pain in the back, feeling tired, and having a swollen abdomen.

We expect that 19,710 women in the United States alone will be told they have ovarian cancer in 2023.

When compared to other cancers of the female reproductive system, where it ranks fifth, it has the highest death rate. Most women who are diagnosed with ovarian cancer are over 63 years old, which makes up about half of all cases.