Ibuprofen, aspirin may reduce woman's risk.

2003 AUG 7 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- New research suggests that regular ibuprofen use may cut a woman's risk of developing breast cancer in half.

Findings reported July 13, 2003, at the annual meeting of the American Association of Cancer Research in Washington, DC, indicate that using ibuprofen - a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) - on a regular basis for more than 10 years may decrease a woman's chance by nearly 50% that she will develop breast cancer.

Using aspirin, another NSAID, reduced breast cancer risk by about 22%, said Randall Harris, the study's lead author and the co-director of the Center of Molecular Epidemiology and Environmental Health at Ohio State University.

"This translates into an approximately 30% reduction [in breast cancer] for all NSAID users, and a 50% reduction in risk among ibuprofen users," he said.

Harris and his colleagues used data from a survey that followed nearly 81,000 women for 4 years to determine what effect NSAIDs had on decreasing the incidence of breast cancer. These women were some of more than 100,000 women participating in the Women's Health Initiative, an ongoing nationwide study sponsored by the U.S. National Institutes of Health that looks at a variety of women's health issues.

"We're discovering that these compounds, NSAIDs, aren't just for pain and inflammation relief," said Harris, who is also the co-principal investigator of the Women's Health Initiative clinical center at Ohio State. "This study shows that these drugs also have significant anticancer effects."

The NSAIDs examined in this study included over-the-counter medications such as ibuprofen and aspirin. At the outset of this study, 80,741 postmenopausal women aged 50 to 79 were asked how often and for how long they had used NSAIDs. These women were selected because they had no personal history of cancer. Each participant was also asked a series of questions that helped researchers evaluate her risk of developing breast cancer, questions such as how often she exercised, her body mass, if she had ever given birth, if she was on estrogen therapy, and if she had a family history of cancer.