How Much Should Patients Take?
One standard aspirin tablet is 325 milligrams, and many studies have used this dose, either once a day or a little less frequently. The new JAMA study found that all the participants who took one 325-mg dose of aspirin (325mg) at least twice a week (for a total of 650mg or more per week) got the protection. Other studies, still in progress, are looking at the effects of a lower daily dose of 80 milligrams, which requires you to cut tablets into fourths or take baby aspirin. In any case, an aspirin regimen is not something you should embark on without your doctor's approval, so discuss the new research with your doctor and choose your dosage based on her recommendations.
Because the aspirin studies are associational, rather than randomized, cancer experts stopped short of recommending aspirin therapy for colon cancer patients. Their pronouncement was that those already taking aspirin for heart disease would benefit from the additional cancer protection, but that it was too soon to recommend aspirin therapy solely for cancer.
Hmm. Personally, if it was me or someone I loved, I'd have an in-depth discussion with my doctor and question whether this approach is unnecessarily conservative. At this point the aspirin studies have been large, consistent, and impressive, and a 30 to 60 percent reduction of risk is nothing to sneeze at, as my dad would have said.
