Common Foods Help Prevent Cancer

Foodstuffs aren't the only things that seem to prevent cancer. A conference presentation by Dartmouth Medical School researcher John A. Baron, MD, showed that people who regularly took baby aspirin -- but not regular aspirin -- had a reduced risk of colon cancer.

"The remarkable thing is the dose effect, where less aspirin gets a much stronger preventive effect than more aspirin," Rauscher says. "We are just learning how to use these compounds. The key is to find where you get the most effect at the least dose. The benefit of this aspirin study is to tell us yes, aspirin works to prevent cancers -- but we have to refine the dosing very carefully."

The new anti-inflammatory drugs Bextra, Celebrex, and Vioxx have a more specific mode of action than aspirin. It's been hoped that they can provide the anticancer effects of aspirin without its side effects. Brawley says the new findings suggest that a low dose of aspirin may not only work better but also avoid side effects at a much lower cost than the new drugs.