Earlier this month, researchers from Erasmus University in the Netherlands published the results of a study that provides further evidence that women with melanoma are more likely to have improved survival rates than men. Now, researchers presenting at the annual Society for Investigative Dermatology (SID) meeting have demonstrated that women may also have an advantage when it comes to preventing melanoma.
First author Carol Gamba, of Stanford University in CA, and colleagues have determined that women who use aspirin are less likely to suffer from malignant melanoma. After adjusting for a variety of demographic factors, the researchers found that women who used aspirin had a 21% lower risk of melanoma than nonusers. The 59,806 participants were all post-menopausal women; baseline results showed that 25% of the women used aspirin, 15% used other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS) and 59% used neither. Women in all three categories were followed for an average of 11 to 12 years; during the follow-up, study participants had 548 new melanoma diagnoses consisting of 289 in situ lesions and 259 invasive lesions. All participants were Caucasian.
The results of the study also showed greater protection against melanoma the longer the duration of aspirin use. After stratifying aspirin users into tertiles (<1 year, 1 to 4 years, ≥5 years), the researchers found that “each progression to the next-highest category was associated with an 11% reduction in melanoma risk, topping out at 30% for the highest-use category.”
Other studies have also shown associations between the use of NSAIDS and lower risks of gastric, colorectal and breast cancers. Earlier investigations into a possible link between NSAIDS and a decreased risk of melanoma have yielded inconsistent results, but, according to Gamba, one trial with negative results used low-dose (100 mg) aspirin, whereas 75% of the aspirin users in the current study were taking full-strength aspirin.
