Researchers are planning to investigate the role of aspirin as a treatment for colon cancer after finding an association with reduced mortality among patients who took the drug after diagnosis.

The use of aspirin as a treatment for colon cancer could prove especially useful for elderly patients who are not suitable for chemotherapy, say the researchers from the Netherlands, whose study is published in the British Journal of Cancer (doi:10.1038/bjc.2012.101).

Previous studies have shown that taking a daily aspirin for several years can help to lower the risk of a number of cancers developing, including bowel and oesophageal cancers. But the present …