Scientists at Massachusetts General Hospital have found in comparative studies with subjects who took low doses of aspirin daily, that when these subjects took the drug over a longer period of time, they had a lower risk of developing liver cancer. The risk was therefore almost halved (43 percent). This fact seems to apply equally to other types of cancer of the digestive system, such as stomach, bowel and even throat. However, the researchers still lack evidence. The authors of the study further suspect that low doses of aspirin also reduce the mortality rate for other liver diseases. Actually, the drug acetylsalicylic acid is administered as a therapeutic agent as a result of fatty liver in overweight people and as a blood thinner (antiplatelet aggregation inhibitor) to prevent blood clots from forming. Now, however, recommendations for the treatment of certain types of cancer seem obvious. 50,000 volunteers, mainly with chronic viral hepatitis, which is the most frequent cause of liver cancer, led the scientists to this conclusion. However, the risk of developing liver cancer decreases with increasing duration of the treatment, as comparative results of the study show. People who took aspirin for only three to five years, for example, had a 34 percent lower risk of liver cancer than participants who took aspirin daily for more than five years (see above). If they took aspirin for less than three years, the rates of mortality from various liver diseases as well as liver cancer rates also increase.
