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Aspirin : The Wonder Drug !
Aspirin both reduces the risk of developing cancer , and may even reduce the risk of death from cancer , according to results from a long-term study presented at the 2017 American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting .
Researchers compared overall and cancer-specific mortality rates in more than 120,000 regular and non-regular aspirin users over 32 years of follow-up .
Compared with non-regular users , regular aspirin users had :
• lower risk of total mortality :
7 % lower for women and
11 % lower for men
• lower risk of cancer-specific mortality :
7 % lower for women and
15 % lower for men
A Blood Test of a Different Color
A new paper-based test can identify a person ’ s blood type within seconds and with only a few drops of blood , according to a proof-of-concept study published in Science Translational Medicine . The test relies on a dye that interacts with antigens and antibodies in the blood , turning teal or brown depending on blood type .
Using just 100 μl of whole blood , the color change happens within 30 seconds – much faster than traditional testing .
When researchers tested the paper-based assay in 3,550 human blood samples , the test was found to be 99.9 % accurate .
The sweet spot for mortality benefit appeared to be 162.5 mg to 487.5 mg per week , for a minimum duration of 6 years .
Source : Cao Y , Stampfer M , Willett W , et al . Long-term aspirin use and total and cancer-specific mortality . Abstract # 302 . Presented at the 2017 AACR Annual Meeting , April 5 , 2017 ; Washington , DC .
“ When translated to the assembly line and low-cost manufacturing , the proposed approach may be developed into a cost-effective and robust universal blood-grouping platform ,” the authors wrote .
Source : Zhang H , Qiu X , Zou Y , et al . A dye-assisted paper-based point-of-care assay for fast and reliable blood grouping . Sci Transl Med . 2017 ; 9 : eaaf9209 .
16 ASH Clinical News June 2017