健康英语新闻:Aspirin may help to prevent cancer: study

BEIJING, Oct. 28 (Xinhuanet) -- Taking aspirin everyday may lower the risk of developing colon cancer for people with the cancer-causing genes, researchers found.

The finding was published on Friday in the British medical journal "Lancet".

The researchers followed 508 patients with Lynch syndrome, an inherited disorder which increases the risk of developing colon and other cancers.

These patients were divided into two groups: members in one group took 600 mg aspirins everyday; another group took only the dummy pills.

After 4 years, 10 colon cancer cases were reported among 258 patients who took daily aspirins for at least two years, comparing with 23 cases among 250 patients on dummy pills.

"This is good news for a very specific population," said Asad Umar, a cancer prevention expert at the U.S. National Cancer Institute.

However, the finding doesn't apply to the general public, suggested the lead author of the study John Burn, a geneticist at Newcastle University in England.

Only those who are at risk of such diseases should consider taking aspirin regularly, such as people having a family history of colon cancer, he added.