Women who take aspirin have a lower risk of skin cancer, according to a new study published on Monday. Study co-author Jean Tang from Stanford University and her colleagues scrutinized data from 59,806 Caucasian women who were asked at the beginning of the study which medications they were taking and what activities they participated in. The women in the group that took aspirin did so twice a week at baseline. When they were asked about aspirin use again three years later, 60-70 percent of the group were still taking it at least twice a week, Tang says. Overall, women who used aspirin had a 21 percent lower risk of melanoma compared to those who eschewed the medication. The longer women used aspirin, the lower the rate of the potentially fatal skin cancer. The researchers chose to concentrate on Caucasian women because melanoma is much more common among them. The researchers don’t know how aspirin lowers melanoma risk, but they’ve got some theories. “Aspirin reduces inflammation,” Tang said. “Cancer cells with a lot of inflammation grow more and are more aggressive." Tang added that cancer cells tend to produce in excess the very same substance that aspirin and other NSAIDs combat.
