Could Aspirin Be a Game-Changer in Colorectal Cancer Care?

Aspirin has been shown to reduce the incidence of colorectal adenoma and colorectal cancer in individuals at high risk, and observational evidence suggests a potential benefit in improving disease-free survival after diagnosis, particularly in patients with tumors harboring somatic PIK3CA mutations. However, data from randomized trials are lacking. To address this, a study evaluated the effect of aspirin on survival outcomes in colorectal cancer, involving 2980 patients {PIK3CA hotspot mutations in exon 9 or 20 (group A alterations) and other moderate- or high-impact somatic variants in PIK3CA, PIK3R1, or PTEN (group B alterations)}.

The study showed that aspirin lowered the 3-year recurrence rate to 7.7% compared with 14.1% on placebo in patients with group A alterations (hazard ratio (HR), 0.49) and to 7.7% versus 16.8% in group B (HR, 0.42). Disease-free survival at 3 years was…