Longevity science

We usually associate low dose aspirin with heart health. However, new research indicates that aspirin could possibly help increase cancer patients' survival rates.

Older adults with colon cancer who were prescribed a daily aspirin were less likely to die than those who weren't, according to a new study.

While the results need to be confirmed with more rigorous studies, they add to the evidence linking aspirin use to longer survival for cancer patients. Studies have also suggested the inexpensive drug can prevent some types of the disease from occurring in the first place.

In a modern-day clinical trial of a medicine belonging to one of the world's oldest classes of drugs, researchers have found that a drug related to aspirin and salicylate, which was first used by ancient Egyptians and Greeks to ease pain caused by inflammation, also has glucose-lowering properties and may be a potential treatment for people with type 2 diabetes, according to results presented at the American Diabetes Association's 72nd Scientific Sessions(R).