A new study suggests that people with cancer of the head and neck could more than triple their chances of survival by simply taking ordinary painkillers.
Common and inexpensive pain relievers, such as ibuprofen and aspirin, increased survival rates from 25% to 78% if the cancer contained a specific gene, present in about one-third of all cancers. head and neck.
Head and neck cancers are diagnosed in approximately 12,000 people in Britain – and kill another 4,000 – every year.
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Researchers at the University of California at San Francisco examined patient survival rates five years after diagnosis.
They found that regular use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) had a dramatic impact on about one-third of people with cancer.
All participants in the study, published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, who saw this marked increase in survival rates had the mutated PIK3CA gene.
For those whose gene had not been altered in the tumor, the taking of pain relievers had no effect.
NSAIDs are a clbad of drugs that not only reduce pain, but can also reduce inflammation. Aspirin and ibuprofen are the most common varieties. The other popular painkiller, paracetamol, acts according to a different process and is not clbadified as an NSAID.
Jennifer Grandis, professor of head and neck surgery and lead author of the article, said, "Our findings suggest that the use of NSAIDs could significantly improve outcomes for patients with dementia." 39, a head and neck cancer, but also for patients with other cancers contained the PIK3CA mutation.
"The magnitude of the apparent benefit is strong and could potentially have a positive impact on human health."
The researchers examined 266 patients at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center whose tumors were removed surgically.
Among patients who used NSAIDs regularly, 93% used aspirin at one time. Most regular users only started taking this medication after their cancer diagnosis.
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The authors of the study suggested that these drugs could block the growth of tumors of the head and neck by reducing the production of an inflammatory molecule called prostaglandin E2.
Professor Justin Stebbing, professor of cancer research and medical oncology at the IHRH at Imperial College London, said: "We know that inflammation is really important in cancer and can be used as part of the process of spreading and growing cancer cells.
"Studies on tumors of the colon, bad and other tumors have shown that anti-inflammatory drugs may be useful in patients with cancers that carry certain mutations.
"This study on head and neck cancer goes further in this knowledge through anti-inflammatory drugs acting on two enzymes: COX and PI3K proteins."
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Prof Stebbing said more work is needed to understand if doctors should start telling cancer patients to take NSAIDs, and how often and at what dose.
A clinical trial to replicate the results of the study is being designed.