Low-dose aspirin affects the clinicopathological features of gastric cancer.
OBJECTIVE
There have been investigations on the chemopreventive effect of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) in gastric cancer and also on the association between cyclo-oxygenase 2 expression and the clinicopathological features of gastric cancer. However, it is not yet clear whether the cardioprotective properties of low-dose aspirin could affect the biological behavior of gastric cancer. This study was aimed at investigating the association between the use of low-dose aspirin and clinicopathological features of gastric cancer in human.


METHODS
A case-control study was performed retrospectively by comparing the clinicopathological parameters between two groups of gastric cancers, 47 (30.5%) low-dose aspirin users and 107 (69.5%) non-aspirin users who were diagnosed and underwent operation for gastric cancers.


RESULTS
The gastric cancers of aspirin user group showed favorable clinicopathological features, such as earlier tumor stage (overall stage, T and N stage: p < 0.001, <0.001, and 0.002, respectively), smaller size (p = 0.03), and intestinal type rather than diffuse type (p = 0.004). But these differences were significant only in non-cardiac cancer while cardiac cancer patients showed no significant association with low-dose aspirin usage (overall stage, T stage, N stage, tumor size, and histological type: p <0.001, <0.001, 0.003, 0.035, and 0.004, respectively, by Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel statistics).


CONCLUSIONS
The use of low-dose aspirin might affect the clinicopathological features in gastric cancers, and possibly have a favorable protective effect on the progression of gastric cancer in a subset of non-cardiac gastric cancer patients.
Hwang
Hye Jin
HJ
Department of Internal Medicine, Institute of Gastroenterology, Brain Korea 21 Project for Medical Science, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Youn
Young Hoon
YH
Kim
Jie-Hyun
JH
Chung
Jae Bock
JB
Lee
Yong Chan
YC
D000368:Aged; D001241:Aspirin / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*
D001241:Aspirin