Background: Results from previous studies indicate that use of low-dose aspirin may improve breast cancer prognosis. We evaluated aspirin use and breast cancer outcomes in relation to clinical characteristics as well as dose and duration of aspirin use.
Methods: We used information from the Regional Breast Cancer Quality-of-Care Registries in three Swedish regions to identify 21,414 women diagnosed with a first stage I-III breast cancer between 1 April 2006 and 31 December 2012. The cohort was further linked to nationwide registers to retrieve information about dispensing low-dose aspirin before and after breast cancer diagnosis, comorbidity and causes of death. In a separate analysis, we investigated time to breast cancer death among 621 women with stage IV disease at diagnosis. Associations were evaluated using a multivariable Cox proportional hazards model.
Results: Among women with stage I-III breast cancer, 2660 (12.4%) used low-dose aspirin shortly before breast cancer diagnosis and 4091 (19.1%) were users during follow-up. Women were followed for a median of 3.8 years after diagnosis. There was no association between aspirin use and breast cancer-specific death in multivariable analyses (use before diagnosis: hazard ratio (HR) 0.93, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.77-1.12; use after diagnosis: HR 1.00, 95% CI 0.74-1.37). Similarly, aspirin use was not associated with risk of first recurrence/metastases in a subgroup of stage I-III breast cancer patients (HR 0.97, 95% CI 0.86-1.10). However, in analyses stratified by stage, an inverse association between low-dose aspirin use after diagnosis and breast cancer death was found for women with stage I tumors (HR 0.53, 95% CI 0.29-0.96). Among women with stage IV disease at diagnosis, aspirin use was not associated with time to breast cancer death (HR 0.91, 95% CI 0.67-1.23).
Conclusion: In this large population-based cohort study there was no evidence that low-dose aspirin use before or after breast cancer diagnosis is associated with a reduced risk of adverse outcomes overall in breast cancer. However, a potential benefit was noted among women with stage I tumors, warranting further investigation.
Keywords: Aspirin; Breast cancer; Registers; Sweden.