An aspirin a day for cancer?

Aspirin may soon have a new role. Scientists from The City College of New York have developed a new aspirin compound that has great promise to be an extremely potent cancer-fighter. The researchers created a hybrid of two earlier formulations, which they have called ‘NOSH-aspirin.’ The new designer aspirin curbed the growth of 11 different types of human cancer cells in culture without harming normal cells, reported a paper published this month in Medicinal Chemistry Letters. The cancers controlled included colon, pancreatic, lung, prostate, breast, and leukemia. The aspirin compound also shrank human colon cancer tumors by 85 percent in live animals, again without adverse effects, according to a second paper in press by the City College researchers and colleague Kenneth Olson of Indiana University School of Medicine, South Bend.