Common Painkillers may Lower Prostate Cancer Risk in Men

by Sreeraman on  September 08, 2008 at 3:21 PM Drug News
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Common painkillers like aspirin and ibuprofen have shown some promise to lower prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels, the blood biomarker to detect prostate cancer risk in men, in a new American study.

"We showed that men who regularly took certain medications like aspirin and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAIDS, had a lower serum PSA level," said first author Eric A. Singer, M.D., M.A., a urology resident at the University of Rochester Medical Center.

The scientists, however, insist that men shouldn't go for these painkillers in order to avert prostate cancer as yet.

"But there's not enough data to say that men who took the medications were less likely to get prostate cancer. This was a limited study, and we do not know how many of those men actually got prostate cancer," Dr. Singer said.

For the study, the researchers examined the records of 1319 men, who crossed the age of 40 and took part in the 2001-2002 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).

They also took into account the men's use of NSAIDs such as aspirin and ibuprofen, as well as the painkiller acetaminophen, and at their PSA levels.

The team found that men who used NSAIDs regularly had about 10 percent lower PSA levels than those who did not.

The same was observed in case of acetaminophen, but as the number of men taking the medication was lower, the result was not statistically significant.

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