Influence of Aspirin on Human Gut Microbiota Composition and Metabolome
Status:
Recruiting
Trial end date:
2021-12-31
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer type in males and the second in
females, accounting for about 693,900 deaths worldwide per year. Although the annual CRC
mortality rate is still very high, it demonstrated a decline by 47% among men and 44% among
women from 1990 to 2015. This decreasing trend may be attributed to improved screening, early
detection as well as combined CRC treatment. In fact, the mortality rate is expected to
reduce further by long-term use of chemopreventive agents that can prevent the development of
neoplasms in the large bowel. Several decades of research both in clinic and laboratory has
identified aspirin as an effective synthetic CRC chemoprevention drug.
It is commonly accepted that aspirin exerts its chemopreventive effects by inhibiting
catalytic enzymes cyclooxygenase (COX) -1 and COX-2 involved in prostaglandin synthesis. But
the mechanism of its chemopreventive effect on CRC is not clearly understood. Other than CRC,
aspirin also showed its potential inhibitory effects on some other types of solid cancer,
such as pancreatic, lung, breast and prostate cancers. However, its effects on
extragastrointestinal cancer types are still elusive due to lack of reliable supporting
evidence from randomized clinical trials. Based on current knowledge, it is unclear why
aspirin appears to inhibit CRC more than other cancers. This might be associated with the
unique microenvironment comprising trillions of microbes in which CRC resides.