Aspirin May Counter Cancer

Add this to the list of benefits, explained and mysterious, of taking aspirin: the drug appears to cut off the blood supply to tumors. The Scientific American reports that researchers at the University of Newcastle in the UK exposed blood
vessel cells to aspirin or to drugs like Celebrex (celecoxib),
which block various forms of an enzyme called cyclooxygenase. The researchers found that aspirin,
at doses well above what is typically used for pain control,
caused death of the blood vessel cells. Sciam reports that at standard doses, aspirin did not affect the cells, but
did seem to disrupt the surrounding proteins that provide a
support structure for blood vessels. Celebrex and the other drugs, which largely target just
cyclooxygenase, did not show these effects. Read more in the Scientific American.