This Common Pill in Your Medicine Cabinet Could Help Stop Cancer From Spreading

Evolving studies suggest low‑dose aspirin may cut the risk of certain cancers and slow metastasis.

BY LEILA SHERIDAN, NEWS WRITER

An inexpensive, common pill sitting in millions of medicine cabinets may be doing far more than easing headaches. Aspirin could help stop cancer before it starts and even slow its spread.

Scientists have suspected this connection for years. Now, a growing body of research is reinforcing that idea and, for the first time, offering clearer insight into how aspirin may actually work against cancer, BBC reported.

A Surprising Benefit From an Ancient Drug

Aspirin’s story stretches back more than 4,000 years, to ancient remedies made from willow tree extracts used to treat pain and fever. Those early mixtures contained a compound similar to what we now call aspirin. By the late 1800s, scientists had refined it into a safer, modern form, one that’s now widely used to reduce inflammation and lower the risk of heart attacks by thinning the blood, according to BBC.

But over time, doctors began noticing something unexpected. People who took aspirin regularly seemed less likely to develop certain cancers, or to have those cancers spread. What started as a pattern in patient data gradually drew more scientific attention.

Vibe-Coding for Beginners in Five Easy Steps

That attention sharpened in 2010, when Peter Rothwell, a clinical neurologist at the University of Oxford, took a fresh look at large datasets from earlier studies on aspirin’s role in preventing cardiovascular disease. His analysis pointed to a striking pattern: people who took aspirin not only developed cancer less often, but were also less likely to see it spread, findings that renewed interest in the drug as a potential tool for cancer prevention, BBC reported.

What the Research Shows

One of the most influential studies focused on people with Lynch syndrome, a genetic condition that significantly increases the risk of colorectal cancer. In 2020, John Burn published results from a landmark randomized controlled trial tracking 861 patients over a decade. Researchers found that participants who took daily aspirin for at least two years had roughly half the risk of developing colorectal cancer compared to those who did not.

More recent data suggests that lower doses, similar to what people take for heart health, may work just as well, with fewer side effects.

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