Women who took the popular pain pill just four times a week were 42 per cent less likely to get bowel cancer, a long-term study has found.
It is the latest research on the benefits of the humble tablet for protecting against a host of killer cancers.
Already taken daily by millions to ward off heart disease and stroke, the ?wonderdrug? increasingly looks to be a powerful cancer weapon.
The latest study shows that taking a low-dose tablet on alternate days could save thousands of lives a year.
The findings suggest aspirin may be taken as a prophylactic, to help ward off cancer in the same way that it is prescribed to protect against heart disease.
US experts at Brigham and Women?s Hospital, Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health, all in Boston, looked at the long-term use of aspirin for reducing the risk for bowel cancer in healthy women.
From 1994 to 1996, 38,876 females aged 45-plus were randomly assigned to take 100mg of aspirin or a placebo every other day. The trial ended in 2004, with follow-ups to 2012.
Researchers also found ongoing use was associated with increased risk of stomach bleeding, a common side effect of aspirin.
They said: ?Long-term use of alternate-day, low-dose aspirin may reduce risk for colorectal cancer in healthy women. The US Preventive Services Task Force recommends aspirin in women aged 55 to 79 years only when potential benefit outweighs potential harm. With more evidence for long-term effects in carcinogenesis, recommendations might be reconsidered.?
Nearly 41,000 people in Britain are diagnosed annually with bowel cancer and almost 16,000 die from it. Aspirin blocks the effects of proteins in inflammation found at unusually high levels in several cancers.
Sarah Williams, at Cancer Research UK, said: ?It shows for the first time that women who take low-dose aspirin every other day lower their chance of developing the disease.?
The findings are published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.
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