Painkillers found to reduce breast cancer risk

[News]

According to an international study the regular use of popular painkillers such as aspirin and ibuprofen reduces the risk of breast cancer.

More... (http://www.news-medical.net/?id=41883)

[donocco5w4]

I remember reading an article in the American Journal of Epidemiology way back in the 1990s that compared the breast cancer rates of women who took a few Ibuprofen (motrin) tablets a week vs those who did not. This study was retrospective over a few years. The women who took the Ibuprofen had a 50% lower breast cancer rate. This sounds a bit much but illustrates the same principal.

Another article in the Journal "Cancer" stated that those people who took one Aspirin tablet a day had a 95% lower rate of Esophageal cancer. Once again this sounds a bit too high but possibly different cancers may vary in their susceptibility to NSAID prevention. Esophageal cancer is much rarer than is breast cancer, so the esophageal epithelial cells may be much more resistant to the genetic changes that end in carcinogenesis.

NSAIDS like Ibuprofen and Aspirin inhibit the enzyme Cyclo-oxygenase 2 , and this enzyme encourages both angiogenesis, and metastasis. In fact, as far as breast cancer goes, the more aggressive the cancer, the greater the amount of Cyclo-oxygenase 2 in the cancer cells.

Paul