Designer Aspirin Curbs Cancer Growth
What’s the Latest Development?
A new aspirin designed at a New York medical center has proven effective at controlling a host of cancers while leaving the body’s healthy cells unharmed. In laboratory tests, the aspirin controlled the spread of colon, pancreatic, lung, prostate, breast, and leukemia cancers. What makes the aspirin so potent? “One arm of the hybrid aspirin releases nitric oxide (NO), which helps protect the stomach lining. The other releases hydrogen sulfide (H2S), which the researchers have previously shown enhances aspirin’s cancer-fighting ability.”
What’s the Big Idea?
Aspirin has long been the go to solution for minor aches and pains. In the 1980s, it was discovered that regular doses of aspirin could help prevent instances of heart attack and stroke by preventing blood clots. More recently, doctors have discovered its anti-cancer properties. Dr. Khosrow Kashfi, the principal investigator behind the new aspirin study, says daily doses of normal aspirin reduces instances of colon cancer by 50 percent and that the new hybrid aspirin is 100,000 times more effective, meaning less medicine is needed to achieve the same result.
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