Researchers have
determined that postmenopausal overweight or obese breast cancer patients
receiving hormone therapy as part of their treatment and who use nonsteroidal
anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as aspirin or ibuprofen have
significantly lower breast cancer recurrence rates and a sizable delay in time
to cancer recurrence.
The findings, published
in the Aug. 14 2014 edition of Cancer Research, suggest a new
possibility for reducing the incidence of breast cancer recurrence among
overweight and obese postmenopausal women, who have a comparatively higher risk
of recurrence.
Using a retrospective
analysis of human subjects and cell cultures, the researchers determined that
NSAID use reduces the recurrence rate of the most common form of breast cancer,
ERĪ± positive breast cancer, by 50 percent and extends patients' disease-free
period by more than two years. ER positive breast cancers, which grow in
response to exposure to the hormone estrogen, account for about 75 percent of
diagnoses.
The investigators caution
that these results are preliminary, and studies are being conducted to confirm
these initial findings.
The investigators first
examined medical records of 440 breast cancer patients, comparing the prognoses
of those who took NSAIDs with those who did not.
Although the mechanism
causing breast cancer in obese women to be more aggressive and less responsive to
treatment is not completely understood, the researchers believe that
inflammation plays a pivotal role.
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