Aspirin Can Save Cancer Patients from Heart Attacks
The old notion that aspirin could lead to lethal bleeding of cancer patients who have heart attacks has now been proven wrong by researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.
According to their new study to be published in the February 1, 2007 issue of the journal Cancer (now available online):
…9 of 10 cancer patients with thrombocytopenia (low platelet count) who were experiencing a heart attack and who did not receive aspirin died, whereas only one patient died in a group of 17 similar cancer patients who received aspirin.
They also found aspirin helps cancer patients with normal platelet count survive heart attacks, just as it does for people without cancer.
It looks like the cancer patients develop blood clots during their treatment and are at a much higher risk of dying from heart disease if not treated properly while there are no guidelines that currently exist for treatment of heart attacks in patients with cancer.
As noted by the study’s senior investigator and author, Jean-Bernard Durand, M.D., assistant professor in the Department of Cardiology at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center:
They found that heart attack patients with low platelets who did not receive aspirin had a seven-day survival rate of 6 percent, compared with 90 percent survival in those who received aspirin.
…that there were no severe bleeding complications in patients who used aspirin. Conversely, patients with low platelet counts who formed a blood clot and were not exposed to aspirin died.
Find more details from the full report at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.
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POSTED IN: general commentary, on cancer diagnostics
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