Study: Aspirin Prevents Colorectal Cancer

By Dr. Brian McDonough, Medical Editor

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Aspirin has been called 'the wonder drug' because of the many conditions it helps prevent including heart disease.

One of the areas that has been studied quite a bit is colon cancer.

A new report has found that women who take 100 mg of aspirin every other day have a reduced risk of developing colorectal cancer. Researchers from the women's health study randomly assigned almost 40,000 women aged 45 and above to take 100 mg of aspirin or a placebo every other day. After 18 years, the incidence of colorectal cancer was 20% lower in the aspirin group.

Certain people cannot take asprin on a regular basis and even though asprin is over the counter, you should talk about it with your doctor before you consider taking it regularly.