Health Update: Aspirin advantage

PEOPLE who take aspirin regularly are 40 per cent less likely to die from four common cancers of the digestive tract, say researchers in Atlanta, Georgia. A survey of 635,000 Americans showed that those who used aspirin 16 times a month or more, for at least a year, were at lower risk of death from cancers of the oesophagus, stomach, colon and rectum than those who never took aspirin. Anti-

inflammatory drugs such as aspirin may inhibit cell proliferation and 'enhance the anti-tumour immune response', they suggest in Cancer Research.