Prostate Cancer Patients, Keep Taking Your Anticoagulants

Here's some exciting (if preliminary) news from a big study conducted by the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, reported by Reuters:

Prostate cancer patients who had been treated with either surgery or radiation, and who took aspirin or other anticoagulant drugs such as warfarin, were far less likely to die of cancer, the researchers said.

Those who took the drugs had a 4 percent risk of dying from prostate cancer after 10 years, compared to 10 percent for men who did not take anticoagulants.

Men with high-risk prostate cancer benefited the most, the researchers said ahead of an American Society for Radiation Oncology meeting, which starts next week in San Diego.

...

Choe's team looked at a study of 5,275 men whose cancer had not spread beyond the prostate gland. Of the men, 1,982 were taking anticoagulants.

Those taking aspirin or other drugs to reduce clotting were far less likely to have the prostate tumors pop up elsewhere in their bodies and were less likely to die, Choe's team said in materials published ahead of the meeting.

It's important to note that these patients were already taking anticoagulants on a regular basis. So it could just be the case that men who are prone to deep vein thrombosis, heart attacks, and other problems commonly treated or prevented with anticoagulants are also prone to living longer after having prostate cancer. Other studies will be needed to determine whether aspirin really makes a difference in cancer prognosis when men take it who have no other reason to take an anticoagulant.

On the other hand, look at those numbers: Nearly 38% of the patients were taking anticoagulants. Prostate cancer affects billions of men worldwide, and 38% of billions is a lot of people. So at the very least, anyone who gets prostate cancer can be relatively assured that their anticoagulants are not going to make the cancer worse, and that will be a big relief. It's certainly a much better outcome than having to choose between treating cancer and preventing heart attacks.

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Source: http://menshealth.about.com/b/2010/10/27/prostate-cancer-patients-keep-taking-your-anticoagulants.htm

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