New research confirms a daily low dose of aspirin is 'single most effective' action to ward off cancer

Scientists urged GPs to ensure patients take ‘baby aspirin’ once a day for a decade between the age of 50 and 65.

13:36 14 January 2015

A recent study has confirmed that a daily dose of aspirin is the best protection against cancer.

The research by University College London, which was led by Prof Jack Cuzick, claims that cancer will kill almost no one under the age of 80 by 2050 if patients aged between 50 and 65 start taking a daily dose of “baby aspirin.”

Author Prof David Taylor, UCL Emeritus Professor of Pharmaceutical and Public Health Policy, said: “This is a projection of what is already happening,” he said. “Overall age-standardised cancer deaths are down 20 per cent since about 1990.”

“What makes this a special point in history is that cancers are in the process of becoming either preventable or effectively curable.”

The report says: “It is realistic to expect by 2050 nearly all cancer related deaths in children and adults aged up to (say) 80 years will have become preventable through life style changes and because of the availability of protective technologies and better pharmaceutical and other therapies.”