Aspirin may help to avoid skin cancer

Almost quarter of a million of people living in Australia are diagnosed with skin cancer every year. This kind of cancer is the most common kind of it in Australia, according to ABC Online, Australia. But researchers say they've discovered that aspirin may help reduce the figures. Regular use of a class of drugs which includes aspirin may protect against a deadly form of skin cancer. Scientists at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research (QIMR) studied 273 people, including 86 with squamous cell carcinoma, a non-melanoma form of skin cancer. Lead researcher David Whiteman said the case-controlled study found significant differences in the use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), particularly aspirin, between those who had the cancer and the healthy control group. Dr Whiteman said when they counted the numbers of sun spots on the 187 healthy participants, who were matched for age and sex with the cancer patients, those with fewer sun spots were the people who used the most NSAIDs. Sun spots are precursors to malignant skin cancer, TVNZ, New Zealand reports. Despite the findings, Dr Whiteman said more research was needed to prove NSAIDs were protection against a person developing squamous cell carcinoma, which killed around 360 Australians each year. A.M.