A meta-analysis of 17 studies involving 8,326 ovarian cancer (OC) patients reports that frequent aspirin use reduces the likelihood of developing OC by 13 per cent.

The new study found that frequent aspirin use (at least six days a week or at least 28 days a month for six months or more) reduced OC risk to a similar amount across women with factors that increase (obesity and family history of breast cancer or OC) or decrease (parity, oral contraceptive use and tubal ligation) risk.

Certain genes, for instance, increase the risk of breast cancer and OC. The reduced risk among women who take aspirin frequently was similar in those with and without a family history of breast cancer or OC (14 and 12 per cent respectively).

Most risk factors are relatively weakly associated with high-grade serous OC, the most common and one of the deadliest subtypes. Nevertheless, aspirin reduced the risk of high-grade serous OC by 14 per cent. 

Among women with two or more risk factors, frequent aspirin use was associated with a 19 per cent reduction in the likelihood of developing OC.

“This research provides further evidence that ovarian cancer chemoprevention with frequent aspirin use could benefit people in higher-risk subgroups,” says study author Dr Britton Trabert, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at the University of Utah School of Medicine.

(Journal of Clinical Oncology DOI:10.1200/JCO.21.01900)