Enzyme may help aspirin protect against colon cancer
People with low levels don’t benefit from common drug
By Nathan Seppa
Aspirin, the pain reliever that lowers fever and inhibits blood clotting, also shows impressive but spotty protection against colorectal cancer. A new study reveals that people who fail to get this benefit from the drug might be making too little of a key enzyme in the colon.
Among aspirin users, those with ample levels of the enzyme 15-PGDH are about half as likely to develop colon cancer as those with low levels of 15-PGDH. Scientists who analyzed data from two studies spanning up to three decades report the findings in the April 23 Science Translational Medicine.