"An aspirin a day may keep the doctor away. It may also reduce your chances of dying from cancer according to a study on longterm regular aspirin use and different kinds of cancer.  Yin Cao an instructor in the Medicine Clinical and Translational Epidemiology Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital http and Harvard Medical School presented the information Monday at the American Association for Cancer Research meeting in Washington.  Cao looked at data from over  women who were part of the Nurses Health Study http between  and  and over  men who were part of the Health Professionals FollowUp Study from  to . Over that year period over  women and nearly  men died of cancer. The risk of death overall was  lower for women and  for men who took aspirin regularly compared with those who did not. The risk of dying from cancer was  lower for women and  lower for men who took aspirin regularly compared with those who didnt take a regular dose. The strongest connection was with colorectal cancer There was a  lower risk for women and  for men who were among regular aspirin takers as other studies https have showed. But it also lowered womens risk of dying from breast cancer by  and mens risk of dying from prostate cancer by . Mens risk of dying from lung cancer was also lower. Evidence has been accumulating very rapidly showing aspirin works in reducing cancer and cardiovascular disease mortality Cao said. It is good to remember though if a person wants to take a lowdose aspirin especially if a person has had cancer they will want to have an initial conversation with their doctor first. Not everyone can take aspirin particularly if you are at high risk for ulcers and gastrointestinal bleeding. Studies have showed an increased risk of both when taking a daily aspirin but the benefit does outweigh the risk for most other people. Rulla Tamimi https the epidemiology chair for the American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting thought the presentation was a beneficial one particularly since scientists are trying to better understand drugs we may all have in our medicine cabinets. There has been a great deal of interest in understanding the possible benefits associated with common drugs Tamimi said in an emailed statement. This study found strong evidence that aspirin use may reduce cancer death. The study was well conducted and was able to control for a number of important confounders. Therefore the findings are believed to be very robust and suggest that aspirin which is widely available cheap and has limited toxicity has the potential to have widespread benefit on cancer mortality for breast colon lung and prostate cancer. Studies have also found that aspirin can help patients who have had or are at high risk for a heart attack or stroke and of course it is a good drug to relieve pain. Even the ancient Egyptians http used the natural form of it for pain relief centuries ago.  In April  the US Preventive Service Task Force https said in a final recommendation statement that taking a regular lowdose aspirin a day may prevent colon cancer and cardiovascular disease for adults between  and  who have a  or greater risk of cardiovascular disease or colorectal cancer. https  Join the conversation See the latest news and share your comments with CNN Health on Facebook https and Twitter httpstwitter.comcnnhealth. Cao hopes her study will continue to broaden the body of research to include cancerrelated deaths overall. Next her group hopes to study what specific groups may most benefit from this practice particularly based on those individuals with varying cancer risk."