An OHSU and Oregon State University study finds aspirin may slow the spread of some types of colon and pancreatic cancer cells. Their findings are published in the American Journal of Physiology—Cell Physiology.

(Left to right) Technician JP Pang, Owen McCarty, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at OHSU, and Annachiara Mitrugno, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in the Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology at OHSU, have published research revealing low doses of aspirin might eventually prove safe and effective for some types of cancer prevention. (OHSU)

“The benefit of aspirin may be due to its effect on blood cells called platelets rather than acting directly on tumor cells,” says Owen McCarty, Ph.D., senior author of the paper and a professor of biomedical engineering in the OHSU School of Medicine.

McCarty and colleagues studied the effects of aspirin on cancer cell growth by modeling the cardiovascular system through lab simulations. A detailed description of the study is posted on the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute science blog, Cancer Translated.