Researchers looking for ways to improve the prognosis for women with ovarian cancer have discovered that taking regular low-dose aspirin appears to have a beneficial effect.

Researchers from the Queensland Institute for Medical Research have been conducting a long-term study to investigate ways to improve the outcomes for women diagnosed with ovarian cancer.

QIMR’s Professor Penny Webb (right) and Dr Azam Majidi (left).Credit:QIMR

The five-year survival rate for stage three and four of the cancer is just 29 per cent, making it Australia’s deadliest gynaecological cancer.

As part of the long-term study, researchers have been looking at a range of drugs to see whether any had an effect.

QIMR Berghofer’s Dr Azam Majidi chose to investigate whether regular aspirin had any benefit for the women diagnosed with the cancer, and discovered something surprising.

Of the 900 women they studied for the observational study, those who took aspirin for at least four days a week in the 12 months after diagnosis, lived longer on average than occasional or non-users.

Specifically, they lived an average of two-and-a-half months longer, which Dr Majidi said may not sound like a lot, but is hugely significant when comparing outcomes for the deadly cancer.

“The disease is often diagnosed at an advanced stage when the prognosis is poor, and treatment options are limited,” she said.

She said the fact that low-dose aspirin was a very common and relatively affordable drug meant that their findings could improve outcomes for ovarian cancer patients around the world.

“While more targeted and advanced treatments show great promise, at the moment they are very expensive and not accessible to everyone – especially in poorer countries,” she said.

QIMR’s Professor Penny Webb, who established the Ovarian Cancer Prognosis and Lifestyle Study in 2012, stressed that the findings were still preliminary, and a full clinical trial was needed to show the specific benefit that low-dose aspirin gave to people with cancer.

Aspirin also interferes with some other medications, so Webb said people should only start taking it after speaking to their doctor.

But she said she hoped the study would help to move the needle further on how aspirin could be incorporated into ovarian cancer treatment to improve outcomes for patients.

“I think a lot of women take it already, so hopefully they can be reassured there is a benefit,” she said.

“But there needs to be that further research into the actual benefits, which would only come with a randomised control trial.”

The research has been published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

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