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American Morning
Aspirin Helps Ward Cancer
Aired February 27, 2002 - 08:19 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: It's time to talk a little medical news now and address the big question of the hour: Can aspirin help prevent cancer? The National Cancer Institute believes it could. The institute is currently conducting a study to see just how this common pain killer, already hailed for its benefits in fighting heart disease, might actually work in the fight against cancer.
It's just one of several developments in today's health news, and CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen begins this morning with a report on the aspirin study.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good morning.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Your name?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Arnold Brown (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK, Mr. Brown (ph), I just need you to...
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A few years ago something scary happened to Arnold Brown (ph). Doctors found polyps in his colon, polyps that could likely turn into cancer. So what are they doing for him? They removed the polyps. He's getting regular colonoscopies, and he's joined a study that might reveal a new radical role for an ordinary drug, aspirin.
DR. ERNIE HAWK, CANCER SPECIALIST: It seems to be one of the most effective drugs in preventing cancer.
COHEN: About 30 different studies have suggested that if you take aspirin regularly, you're about half as likely to get certain cancers than if you don't. Now the National Cancer Institute is doing the more focused study, putting people on aspirin to see if it really works.
So why would aspirin prevent cancer? Substances in the body called prostaglandins send messages to cancer cells telling them to multiply. Aspirin appears to stop the prostaglandins from sending those messages, so the cancer stops growing. A few other painkillers seem to work, too, says Dr. Ernie Hawk, who reads the NCI study. HAWK: I think there's no doubt that it would be one of the weapons in the arsenal against cancer.
COHEN: But Dr. Hawk adds that aspirin can also cause gastrointestinal bleeding. That's another reason why they're doing the focus study to see if the side effects are worth what could be a wonder drug in the fight against cancer.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: And Elizabeth Cohen joins us here in New York. We're always delighted to have you here.
COHEN: I'm delighted to be here.
ZAHN: Now can you explain to us why aspirin is so effective in treating so many different things.
COHEN: It is weird isn't it? I mean this one little drug that all of us have in our medicine cabinet appears to fight so many different diseases. Well the reason why is think back to those prostaglandins that we discussed in the story. Well those little prostaglandins appear to play a role in a whole bunch of different diseases -- headaches, fevers, cancer, heart disease.
And in fact there's a new study out just this week that shows that aspirin might fight viruses, and doctors are also looking at whether regular use of aspirin could prevent Alzheimer's disease. So those prostaglandins are very busy and do a lot of different things.
ZAHN: Because this early news is so encouraging, are doctors recommending that people at a certain age start taking an aspirin a day?
COHEN: They're not recommending quite yet. What they have been doing, and this has been for a couple of years now, that people who are at a particularly high risk for heart disease -- sometimes their doctor will say, you know what, you should start taking an aspirin a day, and then the doctor follows them and make sure that they don't have any gastrointestinal bleeding or anything like that. But right now the recommendations are really for people who are at high risk of a heart or a stroke.
ZAHN: There's also some information -- some new information out about blood pressure today.
COHEN: Yes. Yes ...
ZAHN: Are we in pretty bad shape in America?
COHEN: Oh yes, I mean according to this new study absolutely, especially if you're over age 55. This is a study out of Massachusetts of more than 1,000 people between the ages of 55 and 65. What they found is that 90 percent of those people have hypertension. That's a huge number and in fact 30 percent of Americans with high blood pressure don't even know it. So those are pretty scary statistics.
Now I do want to add a caveat to all that scariness, which is that some people would disagree with the way that this study was done. And they would say, you know what, that number is more like 70 percent of Americans aged 55 and older have ...
ZAHN: That's still ...
COHEN: ... have high blood pressure.
ZAHN: ... high.
COHEN: But that is still -- exactly, that is still really high, and so, the bottom line still is you need to go to your doctor, and you need to get checked especially if you're over age 55 because there's no symptoms, and so you would never know.
ZAHN: So whether there are 70 percent of us or 90 percent of us ...
COHEN: Exactly.
ZAHN: ... we should be doing something about it. What are some of the most obvious things any of us can do to bring down our blood pressure?
COHEN: Well there's a whole bunch ...
ZAHN: Of course I don't want to bring down mine because I'd be legally dead.
COHEN: Oh ...
ZAHN: My whole family is very low pressure. We were blessed -- one of the few things we were blessed with.
COHEN: But you're not age 55 yet, so ...
ZAHN: Thank you.
COHEN: ... you may have a ...
(CROSSTALK)
ZAHN: A long way off ...
(CROSSTALK)
COHEN: ... ages. So there are a couple of things that you can do to try to prevent high blood pressure from happening in the first place.
The first and most important one is to stop smoking. That is so important for all sorts of diseases.
The second one is lose weight, if you need to. The third one is restrict your salt intake. That could prevent high blood pressure.
Drink a maximum of one to two alcoholic drinks per day. Some studies have found that that could help prevent high blood pressure.
And exercise 30 to 45 minutes most days.
Again, all these things could keep you from getting high blood pressure in the first place or if you did get slightly elevated high blood pressure, it may keep you from actually having to take drugs.
ZAHN: Those are pretty simple things to do ...
COHEN: Absolutely.
ZAHN: ... except for the smoking part. I mean I know smokers have told me that they can exercise and find the time to exercise and lower the salt intake. But that final move to quit smoking ...
COHEN: Because it's an addiction.
ZAHN: ... is a tough, tough thing.
COHEN: It's an addiction. It's like getting off of a drug. So yes, I mean most of those things that I just named you can do by yourself. You can get yourself to exercise. You can get yourself to eat better, to lose weight, perhaps by yourself, but smoking is definitely one of those things that you want to go and get professional help sometimes. Some people can do it on their own, but most people, I think, need help.
ZAHN: Thanks for your help this morning.
COHEN: Well thank you.
ZAHN: Good to see you Elizabeth.
COHEN: Good to see you too.
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