Epidemiology

British Journal of Cancer (2006) 95, 1277–1279. doi:10.1038/sj.bjc.6603442 www.bjcancer.com
Published online 24 October 2006

Long-term aspirin use and colorectal cancer risk: a cohort study in Sweden

S C Larsson1, E Giovannucci2,3 and A Wolk1

  1. 1Division of Nutritional Epidemiology, The National Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
  2. 2Departments of Nutrition and Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
  3. 3Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

Correspondence: Dr SC Larsson, E-mail: susanna.larsson@ki.se

Received 31 August 2006; Revised 25 September 2006; Accepted 27 September 2006; Published online 24 October 2006.

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Abstract

In a prospective cohort study of 74 250 Swedish women and men, with 7.2 years of follow-up and 705 incident colorectal cancer cases, long duration of aspirin use (>20 years) was associated with a reduced risk of colorectal cancer (multivariate rate ratio: 0.65; 95% confidence interval: 0.45–0.94). Aspirin use for a shorter period was not associated with risk.

Keywords:

aspirin, cohort studies, colorectal cancer, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, prospective studies