Back to Search Results

Regular Aspirin Use Associates With Lower Risk of Colorectal Cancers With Low Numbers of Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocytes.

Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts; Division of Gastroenterology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts; Clinical and Translational Epidemiology Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts. Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts; Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts; Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts; Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts. Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts. Division of Pathology, Cancer Institute, Japan Foundation for Cancer Research, Tokyo, Japan. Division of MPE Molecular Pathological Epidemiology, Department of Pathology, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts. Division of Gastroenterology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts; Clinical and Translational Epidemiology Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts. Department of Gastroenterology, Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine, Sapporo, Japan. Department of Pathology, University of Tokyo Hospital, Tokyo, Japan. Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts. Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts. Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts; Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts. Broad Institute of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts. Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts; Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts; Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts. Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts; Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts. Division of Gastroenterology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts; Clinical and Translational Epidemiology Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts; Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts. Electronic address: achan@mgh.harvard.edu. Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts; Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts; Division of MPE Molecular Pathological Epidemiology, Department of Pathology, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts. Electronic address: shuji_ogino@dfci.harvard.edu.

Gastroenterology. 2016;(5):879-892.e4
Full text from:

Other resources

Abstract

BACKGROUND & AIMS Aspirin use reduces colorectal cancer risk. Aspirin, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, inhibits prostaglandin-endoperoxide synthase 2 (PTGS2 or cyclooxygenase-2); PTGS2 promotes inflammation and suppresses T-cell-mediated adaptive immunity. We investigated whether the inverse association of aspirin use with colorectal carcinoma risk was stronger for tumors with lower degrees of lymphocytic infiltrates than for tumors with higher degrees of lymphocytic infiltrates. METHODS We collected aspirin use data biennially from participants in the Nurses' Health Study and Health Professionals Follow-up Study. Participants were asked whether they took aspirin in most weeks, the number of tablets taken per week, and years of aspirin use. We collected available tumor specimens (n = 1458) from pathology laboratories in the United States. A pathologist confirmed the diagnosis of colorectal adenocarcinoma (excluding anal squamous cell carcinoma), and evaluated histopathology features, including patterns and degrees of lymphocytic infiltrates within and around tumor areas. Person-years of follow-up evaluation were accrued from the date of return of questionnaires until dates of colorectal cancer diagnosis, death, or the end of follow-up evaluation (June 2010). Duplication-method Cox proportional hazards regression was used to assess the association of aspirin with the incidence of colorectal carcinoma subgroups according to the degree of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), intratumoral periglandular reaction, peritumoral reaction, or Crohn's-like reaction. RESULTS We documented 1458 rectal and colon cancers. The inverse association between regular aspirin use and colorectal cancer risk significantly differed by concentrations of TILs (Pheterogeneity = .007). Compared with nonregular use, regular aspirin use was associated with a lower risk of tumors that had low levels of TILs (relative risk, 0.72; 95% confidence interval, 0.63-0.81), and strength of the association depended on aspirin dose and duration (both Ptrend < .001). In contrast, aspirin use was not associated with a risk of tumors having intermediate or high levels of TILs. This differential association was consistent regardless of the status of tumor microsatellite instability, mutations in BRAF, or expression of PTGS2. Regular aspirin use was associated with a lower risk of tumors that contained low levels of CD3+ T cells, CD8+ T cells, or CD45RO (PTPRC)+ T cells (measured by immunohistochemistry and computer-assisted image analysis). CONCLUSIONS Based on data from the prospective cohort studies, regular use of aspirin is associated with a lower risk of colorectal carcinomas with low concentrations of TILs. These findings indicate that the immune response in the tumor microenvironment could be involved in the chemopreventive effects of aspirin.

Methodological quality

Publication Type : Observational Study

Metadata