http://www.healthsentinel.com/news.php?event=news_print_list_item&idˆ4

Rita Rubin, "Study links pain relievers and breast cancer", USA Today,
May 31, 2005,
Link:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2005-05-31-aspirin-breast-cancer_x.htm

A new study of California teachers fuels the debate about whether
aspirin, ibuprofen or other, related pain relievers affect
breast-cancer risk.

Although research has consistently linked use of aspirin and other
anti-inflammatory pain relievers with a lower risk of colon cancer,
findings about the drugs' effect on breast-cancer risk have been mixed.
Some suggest that the pain relievers protect against breast cancer,
while others have found no link.

The latest study, out today in the Journal of the National Cancer
Institute, is the first to suggest that long-term ibuprofen or aspirin
use might actually raise the risk of breast cancer. But the lead author
says there is no biological explanation for that surprising finding.

"We were expecting ibuprofen to reduce risk, and the same for aspirin,"
says University of Southern California researcher Sarah Marshall.

Alfred Neugut, a Columbia University scientist, says Marshall's
ibuprofen finding is "totally at odds with every other paper" on the
subject. Neugut co-wrote a study published last year that linked the
use of anti-inflammatory pain relievers to at least a 20% reduction in
breast-cancer risk.

In a statement Tuesday, American Cancer Society scientist Michael Thun
suggested that Marshall's findings of a higher breast-cancer risk in
aspirin or ibuprofen users might be because of chance. "However, it
underscores concern about the potential toxicities from long-term
regular use of these drugs," said Thun, co-author of a study out in
January that found no link between the pain relievers and breast-cancer
risk.

Marshall's study analyzed data on 114,460 women in the ongoing
California Teachers Study. The women were 22 to 85 years old and free
of breast cancer when they enrolled in the study a decade ago. At that
time, they told researchers how often and how long they had used
aspirin and ibuprofen.

cancer. When regular aspirin and ibuprofen use - more than once a
week - were lumped together, researchers found no link to
breast-cancer risk.

But when the scientists broke their findings down by pain reliever or
type of breast cancer, they found:

· Women who took ibuprofen daily for at least five years were about
50% more likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer than those who did
not take the drug regularly.

· Women who took aspirin daily for at least five years were 80% more
likely to develop breast cancers that were not sensitive to the
hormones estrogen or progesterone than women who were not regular users
of aspirin.

· Long-term daily aspirin users were 20% less likely to develop the
more common type of breast tumor, one that is sensitive to hormones.
But, the scientists write, the difference was so small it might have
been a result of chance.

No one should stop or start taking a pain reliever because of her
study's findings, Marshall cautions. However, she says, "I'm fairly
convinced from our studies that aspirin and ibuprofen are not reducing
breast cancer."