14 DAY TRIAL // Scientists with the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary have discovered in a new study that aspirin plays an important role in slowing down the growth rates of vestibular schwannomas (acoustic neuromas), a type of noncancerous brain tumor that can lead to hearing loss, tinnitus and early death.
These neuromas are very insidious, since they tend to grow on the neural pathways connecting the ear to the brain. There is currently no US Food and Drug Administration-approved course of medication for treating this disease, which can lead to death in its more severe forms.
Even if they do not kill their hosts, vestibular schwannomas still lead to hearing loss, or at least to tinnitus, which is a persistent state wherein patients hear ringing in their ears at all times. In many cases, treatments such as surgery or radiotherapy can cause more negative effects than the tumors.
The new study was conducted on a sample group of 700 subjects, all of whom had been diagnosed with acoustic neuromas. Details of the investigation appear in a paper published in the February issue of the medical journal Otology and Neurotology, Technology reports.
The research group, led by otologic surgeon and researcher Dr. Konstantina Stankovic, determined that patients who took aspirin displayed much slower-growing tumors than their counterparts who did not. There appeared to be no correlation between this effect and patient's ages or genders.
“Our results suggest a potential therapeutic role of aspirin in inhibiting vestibular schwannoma growth,” says Stankovic, whose research was supported by the US National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. She is also a Harvard Medical School assistant professor of otology and laryngology.
This is just the latest in a string of research papers highlighting the positive effects of aspirin on cancer and the human brain. In 2013, a paper demonstrated that overall cancer risks are reduced by nearly a quarter in people who take one aspirin each month.
A study published in PLoS Genetics in June 2013 revealed that aspirin is able to attach buildups of DNA mutations inside abnormal cells, which can easily develop into malign tumors. The American Medical Association announced the same month that aspirin might reduce colon cancer risks by up to 27 percent in adults.