Aspirin Use and Management of Breast Cancer

The Alliance trial led by Chen and colleagues and published in this issue of JAMA addresses an important topic in the management of breast cancer: can daily use of 300 mg of aspirin improve invasive disease –free survival among persons with a diagnosis of nonmetastatic, high-risk breast cancer? The answer is a fairly definitive no based on prespecified futility rules in a rigorous phase 3, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind trial. The trial (A011502) enrolled 3020 persons (3004 women [99.5% ] and 16 men [0.5%]) from 534 academic and community sites across the US and Canada. Although the trial was planned for 5 years, it was suspended at the first interim safety analysis (median follow-up, 33.8 months; range, 0.1-72.6) because the results indicated futility: 141 vs 112 invasive diseas e–free events in the aspirin vs placebo group, respectively (hazard ratio, 1.27; 95% CI, 0.99-1.63; P = .06).
Source: JAMA - Journal of the American Medical Association - Category: General Medicine Source Type: research