The findings of a new study can change the course of cancer treatment.
As per the study, the findings of which have been published in the journal Nature, scientists have uncovered the mechanism behind how aspirin could reduce the metastasis of some cancers by stimulating the immune system.
“Despite advances in cancer treatment, many patients with early stage cancers receive treatments, such as surgical removal of the tumour, which have the potential to be curative, but later relapse due to the eventual growth of micrometastases – cancer cells that have seeded other parts of the body but remain in a latent state. Most immunotherapies are developed to treat patients with established metastatic cancer, but when cancer first spreads there’s a unique therapeutic window of opportunity when cancer cells are particularly vulnerable to immune attack. We hope that therapies that target this window of vulnerability will have tremendous scope in preventing recurrence in patients with early cancer at risk of recurrence,” said Professor Rahul Roychoudhuri in the Department of Pathology at the University of Cambridge, who led the study.
Aspirin controls cancerous growth by decreasing TXA2
The scientists traced signals in the cell to determine that ARHGEF1 is switched on when T cells are exposed to a clotting factor called thromboxane A2 (TXA2). TXA2 is produced by platelets – a cell in the blood stream that helps blood clot, preventing wounds from bleeding, but occasionally causing heart attacks and strokes. Aspirin reduces the production of TXA2, leading to the anti-clotting effects, which underlies its ability to prevent heart attacks and strokes.
“This new research found that aspirin prevents cancers from spreading by decreasing TXA2 and releasing T cells from suppression. They used a mouse model of melanoma to show that in mice given aspirin, the frequency of metastases was reduced compared to control mice, and this was dependent on releasing T cells from suppression by TXA2,” the researchers have said.
“It was a Eureka moment when we found TXA2 was the molecular signal that activates this suppressive effect on T cells. Before this, we had not been aware of the implication of our findings in understanding the anti-metastatic activity of aspirin. It was an entirely unexpected finding which sent us down quite a different path of enquiry than we had anticipated,” Dr Jie Yang in the Department of Pathology at the University of Cambridge, first author of the report, said.
Aspirin, a widely used medication, serves multiple therapeutic purposes. It effectively alleviates pain, reduces fever, and addresses inflammatory conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis and pericarditis. Additionally, aspirin is utilized in treating rheumatic fever and Kawasaki disease. In lower doses, it plays a crucial role in preventing cardiovascular events by inhibiting platelet aggregation, thereby reducing the risk of heart attacks and strokes in individuals with existing cardiovascular conditions.