Can Aspirin Reduce Breast Cancer Risk in Women With Diabetes?

Women with diabetes who take a low-dose aspirin regimen may reduce their risk of breast cancer by 18%, according to a recent study.

The retrospective cohort study was conducted from January 1, 1998, to December 31, 2011, in Taiwan. The researchers analyzed 148,739 women with diabetes using data from the National Health Insurance Research Database. A total of 27,378 patients were treated with low-dose aspirin (75-165 mg, daily), while the remaining 74,251 patients were not.
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Patients were an average age of 63.3 years. The time-varying Cox regression model method was used to determine the relationship between aspirin use and the hazard ratio for breast cancer.

After adjusting for potential confounders such as age and comorbidities, the results indicated that women with diabetes who took aspirin lowered their risk of breast cancer by 18. In particular, the researchers found that a cumulative dose of aspirin higher than 88,900 mg reduced the risk of breast cancer by 47%, whereas a low cumulative dose (less than 8600 mg) and a medium cumulative dose (8600 to 88,900 mg) did not reduce the risk of breast cancer.

“Our findings suggest that a cumulative aspirin dosage of more than 88,900 mg daily was associated with a reduced risk of breast cancer in women with diabetes,” the researchers concluded. “However, additional studies are necessary to confirm these findings.”

—Christina Vogt

Reference:

Yi-Sun Y, Edy K, Jeng-Yuan C, et al. Low-dose aspirin reduces breast cancer risk in women with diabetes: a nationwide retrospective cohort study in Taiwan [Published online May 24, 2017]. J Womens Health. doi:10.1089/jwh.2016.6040.