Women who take aspirin at least three times a week for an extended period may decrease their risk of ovarian cancer by as much as 40 percent, a new study shows.

The study's findings parallel previous studies on the preventative powers of aspirin for heart disease and cancers that begin in the colon or rectum. However, women should realize that long-term use carries risks, including ulcers, says the lead author, Dr. Arslan Akhmedkhanov of New York University School of Medicine.

The study, funded by the National Institutes of Health and released Wednesday at the annual meeting of the Society of Gynecologic Oncologists, suggests that regular aspirin use for at least six months reduces the risk of epithelial ovarian cancer. Epithelial ovarian cancer, the most common ovarian cancer, originates in the cells that cover the surface of a woman's ovary.

Akhmed Khanov said his team's research could affect the treatment and prevention of gynecologic cancers but that more research is needed. He studied aspirin - an anti-inflammatory - because chronic inflammation could be related to epithelial ovarian cancer, as it is in endometriosis and pelvic inflammatorydisease.

The study involved 748 women enrolled in the New York University Women's Health Study who answered questions about their aspirin use from 1994 to 1996. Of those, 68 developed epithelial ovarian cancer. Among the cancer patients, 10 percent had used aspirin regularly. Among the rest, 16 percent reported regular aspirin use.

The researcher said that after accountings for variables such as contraceptive use and family cancer history, he calculated that regular aspirin use could reduce the risk of developing the cancer by 40 percent. The study was the fifth on the relationship between ovarian cancer and aspirin or other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Akhmedkhanov said his was the first to begin with healthy participants who were followed over time, a research method considered more accurate than a retrospective study.

Akhmedkhanov's study is intriguing, said Dr. Raymond DuBois, director for gastroenterology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, who has researched aspirin's relationship to colon cancer. ``We definitely see a 50 percent reduction in risk of colon cancer with aspirin use, and it's exciting to see a relationship being established for other types of cancer,'' DuBois said.

Dr. Beth Karlan, director of gynecologic oncology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, called the study provocative and worthy of further study but not definitive because of the small number of patients. ``The data so far cannot lead me as a clinician to recommend it to my patients,'' she said. Physicians stress a low-fat diet, regular exercise and avoidance of alcohol and tobacco as the best prevention for most cancers. Birth control pill use also has been documented as lowering risks of ovarian cancer.

Ovarian cancer is the sixth most common cancer in women. According to the American Cancer Society, more than 23,000 American women will be diagnosed with the disease this year and about 14,000 - nearly 61 percent - will die. Because symptoms are subtle, most cases of ovarian cancer are diagnosed only after they reach advanced stages.

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Society of Gynecologic Oncologists
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