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Aspirin and the risk of nondigestive tract cancers: An updated meta‐analysis to 2019
Author(s) -
Santucci Claudia,
Gallus Silvano,
Martinetti Marco,
La Vecchia Carlo,
Bosetti Cristina
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
international journal of cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.475
H-Index - 234
eISSN - 1097-0215
pISSN - 0020-7136
DOI - 10.1002/ijc.33311
Subject(s) - medicine , aspirin , relative risk , meta analysis , endometrial cancer , oncology , prostate , cancer , prostate cancer , cohort study , breast cancer , ovarian cancer , kidney cancer , confidence interval , colorectal cancer , gynecology
Aspirin has been associated with a reduced risk of colorectal and other selected digestive tract cancers, but the evidence for other neoplasms is still controversial. To provide an up‐to‐date quantification of the role of aspirin on lung, breast, endometrium, ovary, prostate, bladder, and kidney cancer, we conducted a systematic review and meta‐analysis of all observational studies published up to March 2019. We estimated pooled relative risk (RR) of cancer or cancer death for regular aspirin use vs non‐use by using random‐effects models, and, whenever possible, we investigated dose‐ and duration‐risk relations. A total of 148 studies were considered. Regular aspirin use was associated to a reduced risk of lung (RR = 0.88, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.79‐0.98), breast (RR = 0.90, 95% CI = 0.85‐0.95), endometrial (RR = 0.91, 95% CI = 0.84‐0.98), ovarian (RR = 0.91, 95% CI = 0.85‐0.97) and prostate (RR = 0.93, 95% CI = 0.89‐0.96) cancer. However, for most neoplasms, nonsignificant risk reductions were reported in cohort and nested case‐control studies and there was between‐study heterogeneity. No association was reported for bladder and kidney cancer. No duration‐risk relations were observed for most neoplasms, except for an inverse duration‐risk relation for prostate cancer. The present meta‐analysis confirms the absence of appreciable effect of regular aspirin use on cancers of the bladder and kidney and quantifies small and heterogeneous inverse associations for other cancers considered.