In a surprising discovery, it was found that the humble painkiller aspirin found in medicine cabinets around the world may wield the power to stop cancer from spreading, thus preventing many deaths.
Researchers from the University of Cambridge discovered that aspirin may help the immune system to recognize and kill metastasizing cancer cells, and prevent the deadly spread. This breakthrough finding could change the way cancer is treated in the future.
The study published in Nature Journal focuses on the body’s immune system and a previously hidden role that aspirin plays in unleashing T-cells – the body’s cancer-fighting soldiers – to attack rogue cancer cells before they spread. While still in the early stage, the findings show a possibility of an everyday drug turning into a potentially powerful ally in the fight against cancer.
The data from a decade back shows that people who took a daily aspirin were more likely to survive if they were diagnosed with cancer.
How aspirin helps stop cancer cells from spreading
Deep inside the immune system, T-cells act like microscopic bodyguards, looking for threats and swooping in to destroy cancer cells before they can take hold. Scientists find that our own platelets – the blood cells usually responsible for clotting and stopping bleeding – can interfere with T-cells, slowing them down and making it harder for them to fight off cancer.
This is where aspirin comes in. By disrupting the platelets, aspirin frees up the T-cells, allowing them to unleash their full cancer-killing power and giving the immune system a much-needed edge in the fight against cancer.
“What we’ve discovered is that aspirin might work, surprisingly, by unleashing the power of the immune system to recognize and kill metastasizing cancer cells,” Prof Rahul Roychoudhuri, from the University of Cambridge told BBC.
Prof Roychoudhuri thinks the drug could work best in cancers that are caught at eary stages and could be used after treatment such as surgery to help the immune system detect any cancer that may have already spread.
While the study does provide clues to how aspirin may work in preventing cancer spread, the medication also has its own set of risks.
Aspirin can cause dangerous internal bleeding including strokes so the risks have to be balanced. It is also not clear whether the effect works for all cancer or just specific ones. And this is still animal research so while the scientists think this would apply in people that will still need to be confirmed.
Some patients with Lynch syndrome, a genetic condition that raises cancer risk, are already advised to take aspirin. However, experts stress that more clinical trials are needed to determine if other cancer patients could benefit.
One such trial, called Add-Aspirin, is already underway, led by Prof Ruth Langley at University College London. It’s exploring whether aspirin can prevent early-stage cancers from returning.
While researchers call the latest findings an important discovery, they caution that aspirin comes with serious risks, such as internal bleeding, and urge patients to consult their doctors before considering it. In the future, scientists hope to develop safer drugs that offer aspirin’s benefits without the side effects.
This path breaking discovery was made by accident as the team in Cambridge were actually keen on finding how the immune system responded to cancers when they spread. For this purpose they were using genetically engineered mice and found those lacking a specific set of genetic instructions were less likely to get metastatic cancer that had spread. It was later discovered that T-cells were being suppressed — a finding that began to overlap with aspirin’s known effects on the body.