Here’s a new way of warding off liver cancer. Regular use of aspirin—defined as two or more standard-dose tablets a week for over five years—may reduce the risk of developing primary liver cancer. Aspirin is known to block the production of inflammatory lipids that can lead to liver injury. A study conducted by scientists from Harvard Medical School at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, US, has developed a link between aspirin and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), a type of cancer usually diagnosed at a later stage and, therefore, the second leading cause of cancer death. As a part of the study, 170,000 participants were followed up for three decades. The data showed that regular use of aspirin led to a 59 per cent reduction in the risk of HCC. The study was published in Jama Oncology.

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January 2019