Very interesting as breast cancer is very similar to prostate cancer.
Cheap, Accessible Drug May Offer Hope for Aggressive Cancer
A trial is underway to determine whether an aggressive breast cancer might be treated with help from an inexpensive and widely available drug: aspirin. Researchers at the Christie NHS Foundation Trust in Manchester, England, will test whether aspirin makes difficult-to-treat tumors more responsive to cancer-fighting drugs, as animal studies suggest, per the BBC.
Tumors found in patients with triple-negative breast cancer, an aggressive form that accounts for 10% to 15% of all breast cancers and disproportionately affects Black and younger women, lack estrogen or progesterone receptors, which some other breast cancers have, "meaning certain treatments, such as [monoclonal antibody] Herceptin, will not work," per the BBC.
That leaves "few treatment options and a long and debilitating treatment plan," Beth Bramall, a 44-year-old patient, tells the outlet.
The trial, funded by a research program of the Breast Cancer Now charity, will look at whether aspirin's anti-inflammatory properties increase the effectiveness of avelumab, a type of immunotherapy, "by preventing the cancer from making substances that weaken the immune response," trial leader Dr. Anne Armstrong says, per the Guardian.
Patients will receive avelumab with and without aspirin before surgery and chemotherapy.
If the trial is successful, further research may look at aspirin's effect on people with incurable secondary triple-negative breast cancer, which occurs when cancer cells escape the breast and spread in the body.
Cheap, Accessible Drug May Offer Hope for Aggressive Cancer.
"Low-dose aspirin revealed its combined effect on OS and PFS in four studies and five studies, respectively. Pooled data of HRs showed that the concurrent use of low-dose aspirin was not significantly relevant to OS, whereas PFS was improved significantly in patients receiving ICIs concomitantly (low-dose aspirin users versus non-aspirin users: OS: HR = 0.93 ... PFS: HR = 0.84 ...). Then, in subgroup analyses according to ICI agents, cancer type and analytical model, a significant association between the concomitant use of aspirin and OS was not observed. However, the concomitant use of aspirin and ICIs was found to be associated with better PFS in patients treated with PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors, NSCLC patients and in a multivariate subgroup (PD-1/PD-L1: HR = 0.80 ...NSCLC patients: HR = 0.67... multivariate subgroup: HR = 0.82 .., respectively)."
The effect of concomitant use of statins, NSAIDs, low-dose aspirin, metformin and beta-blockers on outcomes in patients receiving immune checkpoint inhibitors: a systematic review and meta-analysis
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Avelumab targets the protein programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1).
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It's a stretch to say that "breast cancer is very similar to prostate cancer". One has to pick & choose. The article mentions "triple-negative breast cancer". Wiki: "Triple-negative breast cancer ... is any breast cancer that does not express the genes for estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR) and HER2/neu. This makes it more difficult to treat since most hormone therapies target one of the three receptors ...". Is there a parallel in PCa?
However, it's useful to know how drugs (& supplements) may affect certain types of therapy, across cancer types.
Dr. Myers said they are histologically similar and basically derive from the same stem cell clades.
"Triple-negative breast cancer ... is any breast cancer that does not express the genes for estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR) and HER2/neu."
Sort of rhymes with neuroendocrine prostate cancer that is operating without testosterone?????
"The concomitant use of statins during ICI treatment was correlated with improved OS and PFS. Low-dose aspirin was associated with better PFS instead of OS. No significant association was demonstrated between the concurrent use of NSAIDs, beta-blockers and metformin and OS or PFS. The concomitant use of statins and low-dose aspirin during ICI treatment showed a positive impact on treatment outcomes. "
Sounds provisionally promising. And none of these have any real downsides I don't think.
There is an add aspirin clinical trial in the UK for those who have had primary treatment for prostate cancer. I was on it but came off it because firstly I did not know whether I was on a placebo or one of the two separate doses of aspirin and secondly because despite initially having no problem with my supplements they were then unhappy with some of my “blood thinning” supplements like Natto etc. I did not want to give up my supplements for a placebo. So I currently take a baby aspirin 5 days in 7 plus a number of supplements like Natto, Curcumin and many others. I think the trial is testing whether aspirin delays metastasis. There is also a similar trial in respect of D3 which I also take and I think metformin. Hopefully there will be some initial results in next 3 years
This study recommends aspirin for PCa patients: "..... postdiagnosis aspirin use was associated with 57% lower prostate cancer–specific mortality (PCSM) among men diagnosed with nonmetastatic prostate cancer"
Four years after the study you refer to came the results from the largest RCT on aspirin and below I paste a post from TA on it. At the end of the study linked to by him is a discussion about the contradictions between that major study and a number of other studies. There are more studies showing benefits but the negative one is larger and more recent. For me as a newbie on aspirin it's not easy to take a stand!
With the conflictive evidence and bearing in mind that there is no doubt to aspirin's benefit for clotting problems, could monitoring of platelet levels be an alternative to baby aspirin?
Post from TA: The opposite is true. In the largest RCT ever done on aspirin, they found: " Higher all-cause mortality was observed among apparently healthy older adults who received daily aspirin than among those who received placebo and was attributed primarily to cancer-related death."
nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/N...
Specifically, for the development of castration resistance in prostate cancer, "the proportion of patients who developed castration-resistant prostate cancer did not significantly differ between groups."
thelancet.com/journals/lanc...
There may be good reason to take aspirin for cardiovascular purposes in men prone to clotting problems. End of post from TA
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Cancer drugs: dosing debates, cost conflicts
Aggressive prostate cancer hater
One of those rare and aggressive cancers? 
