Aspirin and non-small cell lung cancer resections: effect on long-term survival.

Objective: Survival after resections for non-small cell lung cancer remains poor. Recurrent lung cancer remains common. Due to the common risk factor of smoking, cardiovascular deaths occur in the absence of recurrent lung cancer in up to 15% of patients. Aspirin has been proven to reduce cardiovascular mortality as a secondary prophylactic agent, but not as a primary agent. Aspirin being a COX-2 inhibitor has been shown to reducethechanceofmetastasisinadenocarcinomabut notsquamouscarcinoma.Wesoughttoinvestigatetheeffectoflong-termaspirintherapy on survival post potentially curative surgery. Methods: We analysed a prospective thoracic surgical database, from time period 2003 to date. Patientswhowereonaspirinpre-operatively,N = 412werecomparedtononusers,N = 1353.Patientlong-termoutcomewasassessedutilisingthe national strategic tracking service that operates in the United Kingdom. Cox proportional hazards analysis was used to determine significant factors affecting survival. Results: 100% survival follow up was achieved. Regular users of aspirin had >5% increased survival, which was significant, p = 0.05, despite having a higher cardiovascular risk profile. Mode of death data was not available. Conclusions:Adjuvant aspirin post resection for potentially curative non-small cell lung cancer significantly increases survival. The mechanism of increased survival needs further investigation and is the basis for the trial: Adjuvant Aspirin for Non-Small cell Lung Cancer — The Big A Trial. www.TheBigATrial.co.uk. # 2010 European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.