Dr. Arber on Aspirin for Colorectal Cancer Prevention

Nadir Arber, MD, MHA, Yechiel and Helen Lieber Chair for Cancer Research at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center and Tel Aviv University, Sackler School of Medicine, Professor of Medicine and Gastroenterology and Director of the Integrated Cancer Prevention Center (ICPC) in Tel-Aviv Medical Center, discusses the role of aspirin in the prevention of colorectal cancer.

Aspirin is often researched as a preventative method individually for Alzheimer's, heart disease, and colorectal cancer. However research should be focused on overall mortality across diseases, and not focused on specific individual diseases, says Arber.

Aspirin has a good safety profile, and should be recommended to most who are at high-risk for colorectal cancer. However, risk should be carefully calculated, as there are some negative effects for certain patients populations, says Arber. Further research is needed to determine the optimal patient population who will most benefit from aspirin.