Aspirin Now Officially Recommended For Cancer Prevention

[haidut]

I was shocked to see this recommendation come from the director of the NCI. While he only mentioned liver and colon cancer, I think this is a huge change attitude in regards to aspirin, and one that should be all over the news. However, given that medicine still does not have a plausible explanation of aspirin's effects using for instance an aspirin "receptor", it is quite embarrassing for the profession to turn towards a drug that just like bromocriptine for type II diabetes, works in "mysterious ways". Nonetheless, I think the house of cards may be finally collapsing as Ray said. So, I would not be surprised if the price of aspirin skyrockets over the next few years given the NOW official guidelines recommend aspirin explicitly for cancer prevention.

Death rates for most cancers in decline
"...Death rates for most types of cancer have declined for a decade or more, but rates of liver and pancreatic cancers remain on the rise, Dr. Douglas Lowy, acting director of the National Cancer Institutes, said Friday in Albuquerque."

"...“My hope and optimistic expectation is that in a few years, the price of (hepatitis C) drugs will have gone down,” Lowy said in an interview. Over time, the drugs will cut the rate of new infections of hepatitis C, and should lower rates of liver cancer, he said. Other solutions could be as simple as taking a low-dose aspirin each day, Lowy said. Taking a low-dose aspirin for five years or longer has been shown to reduce the incidence of colorectal and other cancers. New guidelines are likely to emerge later this year recommending people take daily low-dose aspirin to reduce risk of colorectal and other cancers, he said.

Top doctors say older people should take a daily dose of aspirin to prevent heart attacks
"...The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommends that people who are aged 50 to 69 and have increased risk of heart disease, and who are not at increased risk for bleeding, should consider taking aspirin daily. They also recommends daily aspirin use for the primary prevention of cardiovascualr disease (CVD) and colorectal cancer in adults aged 50 to 59 who have a 10 per cent or greater 10-year CVD risk, are not at increased risk for bleeding, and who have a life expectancy of at least 10 years."

 

[charlie]

 

[sladerunner69]

I'd be surprised if the price of aspirin exploded, isn't it relatively easy to manufacture?

You raise an interesting point, however, I wonder if I should be stockpiling.

 

[Jayfish]

Would topical aspirin be enough or does it have to be ingested? I got bad reactions from ingested aspirin but solban is fine.

 

[Atalanta]

I'd be surprised if the price of aspirin exploded, isn't it relatively easy to manufacture?

You raise an interesting point, however, I wonder if I should be stockpiling.

The profit margin for most pharmaceutical drugs is pretty high as most drugs are very overpriced. Manufacturing costs do not determine the price of a drug; greed does.

If aspirin becomes accepted as a cancer preventive, the FDA will make it a prescription drug so that the pharmaceutical companies can overprice it and make huge profits.

Cancer is a profitable disease; physicians and drug companies do not want the cancer rate to fall. If they can't make money treating cancer then they will surely make money preventing cancer.

 

[Atalanta]

Is the anti cancer effect of low dose aspirin stronger than the cancer promoting effect of high PUFA consumption?

I don't think a person who ingests a lot of PUFA will benefit much from low dose aspirin therapy and I think most people cannot tolerate higher dosage aspirin therapy.

 

[ecstatichamster]

I don't believe cancer death rates are falling. I think that death rates are being reassigned to other causes of death. For instance cahexia from chemo and radiation is attributed to heart failure rather than cancer. I would bet money cancer death rates are going UP.

 

[haidut]

Is the anti cancer effect of low dose aspirin stronger than the cancer promoting effect of high PUFA consumption?

I don't think a person who ingests a lot of PUFA will benefit much from low dose aspirin therapy and I think most people cannot tolerate higher dosage aspirin therapy.

Yes, aspirin still helps even in these people, and amazingly even if taken only 2-3 times a month.
Taking aspirin just once a month 'can cut risk of cancer by a quarter'

 

[haidut]

I don't believe cancer death rates are falling. I think that death rates are being reassigned to other causes of death. For instance cahexia from chemo and radiation is attributed to heart failure rather than cancer. I would bet money cancer death rates are going UP.

They are going up. Aside from the anecdotal evidence on CNN of people in their 30s and 40s dying from all sorts of cancer, the stats are being fudged but can't hide the fact when you look at the age-specific mortality:
The Cancer Matrix
"... In the 1970s, I noticed that the definitions of the features of uterine cancer had been changed recently, including as "cancer" things that had previously been classified as merely abnormal or precancerous. Reading more about the grading of cancer, I saw that other cancers had been defined more inclusively since the 1940s. Things that had previously not been called cancer were now being counted among the cancers that were cured by the various treatments, so, necessarily, the rate of cure had increased. The true situation could be seen by the age-specific mortality rate for each type of cancer. During the period when the "cure rates" were increasing, the age-specific death rates had increased. I think that's the sort of thing that Dean Burk had in mind."
The age-specific mortality due to cancer has been increasing since the 1940s, which is when the nuclear industry really took off. So, to conceal that fact as much as it can the medical industry now assigns various unremarkable causes of death to people with cancer, as it is technically true that probably nobody dies directly from cancer but from a conditions like organ failure or immunocompromise due to cancer and its "treatments".

 

[haidut]

The profit margin for most pharmaceutical drugs is pretty high as most drugs are very overpriced. Manufacturing costs do not determine the price of a drug; greed does.

If aspirin becomes accepted as a cancer preventive, the FDA will make it a prescription drug so that the pharmaceutical companies can overprice it and make huge profits.

Cancer is a profitable disease; physicians and drug companies do not want the cancer rate to fall. If they can't make money treating cancer then they will surely make money preventing cancer.

This. For the people thinking aspirin would never disappear from the shelves, keep in mind that the company doing the wildly successful human trial with 300mg biotin for MS petitioned the FDA to regulate biotin as a drug and the FDA agreed. So, once 300mg biotin becomes approved, even the 10mg maximum legal dose available now OTC in USA will disappear as per the request of that drug company.
Finally, if anybody has any doubts that aspirin can fight cancer see below article on financial industry "concern" that the effectiveness of aspirin against cancer will put strain (read profits) on the retirement system. Just notice that people giving up smoking is actually a concern for the health and pension industry, not a boon/benefit.
Aspirin Seen Fueling $100 Billion Pensions Cost
"...Aspirin’s use fighting cancer has the potential to increase pension liabilities by as much as $100 billion by extending lifespans, a risk modeler said in a report. The pension costs for men in the U.K. could rise by 0.7 percent within 20 years if more people begin taking aspirin daily, according to a statement by Risk Management Solutions Inc. today. An increase of that magnitude across the more than $13 trillion in pension liabilities in North America and Europe would be about the same as everyone giving up smoking within a generation, the modeling firm said. Employers and governments are grappling with obligations to retirees as low bond yields make it harder to generate returns on funds set aside for the benefits. Actuaries’ assumptions about costs have been challenged as medical advances and changes in behavior help people live longer. “Aspirin was not known to be a protection against cancer,” said Andrew Coburn, a senior vice president of RMS’s LifeRisks platform and one of the report’s authors. “It’s another one that people just didn’t expect” when they forecast liabilities. Daily doses of aspirin reduce the chances of developing or dying from cancer earlier than previously thought and also prevent tumors from spreading, studies published in the Lancet medical journal last year showed."

 

[Parsifal]

What so you think about this regarding aspirin and salycilates stimulating insulin: Some thoughts on aspirin

 

[sladerunner69]

1

This. For the people thinking aspirin would never disappear from the shelves, keep in mind that the company doing the wildly successful human trial with 300mg biotin for MS petitioned the FDA to regulate biotin as a drug and the FDA agreed. So, once 300mg biotin becomes approved, even the 10mg maximum legal dose available now OTC in USA will disappear as per the request of that drug company.
Finally, if anybody has any doubts that aspirin can fight cancer see below article on financial industry "concern" that the effectiveness of aspirin against cancer will put strain (read profits) on the retirement system. Just notice that people giving up smoking is actually a concern for the health and pension industry, not a boon/benefit.
Aspirin Seen Fueling $100 Billion Pensions Cost
"...Aspirin’s use fighting cancer has the potential to increase pension liabilities by as much as $100 billion by extending lifespans, a risk modeler said in a report. The pension costs for men in the U.K. could rise by 0.7 percent within 20 years if more people begin taking aspirin daily, according to a statement by Risk Management Solutions Inc. today. An increase of that magnitude across the more than $13 trillion in pension liabilities in North America and Europe would be about the same as everyone giving up smoking within a generation, the modeling firm said. Employers and governments are grappling with obligations to retirees as low bond yields make it harder to generate returns on funds set aside for the benefits. Actuaries’ assumptions about costs have been challenged as medical advances and changes in behavior help people live longer. “Aspirin was not known to be a protection against cancer,” said Andrew Coburn, a senior vice president of RMS’s LifeRisks platform and one of the report’s authors. “It’s another one that people just didn’t expect” when they forecast liabilities. Daily doses of aspirin reduce the chances of developing or dying from cancer earlier than previously thought and also prevent tumors from spreading, studies published in the Lancet medical journal last year showed."

Wow that is indeed disheartening, one drug company having that much influence. I grow to despise the FDA and similar bureaucracies more and more each day. Almost all are corrupt, inefficient, and a waste of tax revenue.

Even so, I can't foresee aspirin become exclusive or getting placed on the pharmaceutical list. It has a long history going back a century, is produced by countless companies, and has a one ingredient formula. I just can't see this happening to aspirin.

 

[haidut]

1



Wow that is indeed disheartening, one drug company having that much influence. I grow to despise the FDA and similar bureaucracies more and more each day. Almost all are corrupt, inefficient, and a waste of tax revenue.

Even so, I can't foresee aspirin become exclusive or getting placed on the pharmaceutical list. It has a long history going back a century, is produced by countless companies, and has a one ingredient formula. I just can't see this happening to aspirin.

It happened with a type of vitamin B6 and it is about to happen with biotin. Keep in mind that the ruling on B6 (see below) was sudden and no time was given to any vendor to sell stockpiled supplies.
Pyridoxamine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Why would aspirin be any different? Actually, there are only a few big manufacturers of aspirin worldwide and everybody else buys from them in bulk. For the US-based ones, FDA can directly ban them from selling aspirin once it becomes a drug. For the international ones, all it takes is for the FDA to call them and "propose" that they no longer sell to the general market but only to a few pharma companies, but the new price will be 100 times higher. Why would any of these vendors object?? Basically, by complying their profits will increase 100 times or more.

 

[CarbAppreciator]

It happened with a type of vitamin B6 and it is about to happen with biotin. Keep in mind that the ruling on B6 (see below) was sudden and no time was given to any vendor to sell stockpiled supplies.
Pyridoxamine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Why would aspirin be any different? Actually, there are only a few big manufacturers of aspirin worldwide and everybody else buys from them in bulk. For the US-based ones, FDA can directly ban them from selling aspirin once it becomes a drug. For the international ones, all it takes is for the FDA to call them and "propose" that they no longer sell to the general market but only to a few pharma companies, but the new price will be 100 times higher. Why would any of these vendors object?? Basically, by complying their profits will increase 100 times or more.

Boy that sounds like a nightmare scenario, but I think the FDA would risk too much by using such strongarm tactics with something everyone knows like aspirin. This would be a big story that everyone will follow, and I don't think the FDA has the appetite for bringing so much attention to themselves, given all their corruption. Even in a communist dictatorship, the court of public opinions reigns supreme at the end of the day. If they want to do this they need to use a long gradual propoganda campaign to slowly start convincing the public that aspirin is dangerous and should only be taken by very sick people. Maybe they will make new labeling laws that scare away consumers. In the meantime, the grey market will always be there to supply us peatarians with our needs. The manufacturers can do what they please, but they stand to lose if they sell their products at higher than reasonable prices, because that gives a chance for a new guy to come in and undercut them.

 

[sladerunner69]

It happened with a type of vitamin B6 and it is about to happen with biotin. Keep in mind that the ruling on B6 (see below) was sudden and no time was given to any vendor to sell stockpiled supplies.
Pyridoxamine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Why would aspirin be any different? Actually, there are only a few big manufacturers of aspirin worldwide and everybody else buys from them in bulk. For the US-based ones, FDA can directly ban them from selling aspirin once it becomes a drug. For the international ones, all it takes is for the FDA to call them and "propose" that they no longer sell to the general market but only to a few pharma companies, but the new price will be 100 times higher. Why would any of these vendors object?? Basically, by complying their profits will increase 100 times or more.

Well jsut to play devil's advocate here, if a manufacturer were to comply to regulations stating they could only sell to one of the big pharma cartels, then I think demand for aspirin would have to drastically increase to make that deal profitable. Currently aspirin as a product is generally passed up in favor of acetometphen brands that are percieved to be more "modern" and faster acting, albeit however toxic and harmful they may really be. If the cost of aspirin increased significantly, the average aspirin consumer would simply pass it up, and the manufacturer would likely lose business, and not buy into an agreement.

Or they would make such an agreement, and the results would be tragic and devastating, save for Big Pharma mob bosses.

Definitely strange about the regulatory action on b6. I've enver heard of anything like that being placed on a vitamin. Awful corruption these days....

 

[Jayfish]

If mainstream media picks up that aspirin can cure cancer, sales will skyrocket.

 

[mujuro]

Can't we just stock up on white willow extract instead?

 

[burtlancast]

A point of law the FDA doesn't want people to know is all drugs legally marketed before 1938 escape FDA juridiction: it can't touch them.

Aspirin is such a drug.

As with later reforms, it took a major disaster and a public outcry to bring about reforms. In 1937, as "Elixir of Sulfanilamide," containing a sulfa "wonder drug" mixed with a solvent closely akin to radiator antifreeze, caused 108 deaths. This provided the impetus, at last, for legal requirements that safety be proven before new drugs could be marketed. The comprehensive Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act of 1938 is still the basic law governing the FDA. Drugs marketed before 1938 could remain on the market without proof of safety.

ACT UP/New York FDA Action Handbook 9-12-88 (page 2)

 

[Tenacity]

Should young people take aspirin if they are otherwise healthy?

 

[Jenn]

Yes, aspirin can be taken topically. You can put regular aspiring tablets (or bulk crystals...but they don't dissolve as well ) in your bath or foot soak with your Epsom salts and or regular salt. It will absorb through the skin and can be a good way to get it if you have a sensitive stomach.