Chemo Day 52 - climbing out of the hole

I've slowly been crawling out of the chemo hole.  This third round has been the toughest yet, as far as overall weariness.  I have felt a greater mental and emotional toll than in prior rounds.  The newness of the adventure worn off, and now it's just a slog.  But I feel my body slowly coming back as the toxins leach from my system.  Yesterday I felt that familiar pain in my bones as my bone marrow responded to the Neulasta shot and struggled to pump out more white blood cells. Today that bone pain slowly is receding to a dull ache, and I know that over the next few days I'll be feeling better.  I'm looking forward to two weeks off.

Yesterday the press reported on a recent series of studies published in the Lancet, suggesting that taking a baby aspirin once a day can significantly reduce both the risks of cancer, and the risk of spreading.  Click here for a summary.  Here's what the Lancet says: 

Aspirin to prevent and treat cancer

A collection of three papers by Rothwell and colleagues add to the growing evidence base suggesting that daily aspirin can be used to help prevent and possibly treat cancer. In the first Article the authors studied individual patient data from 51 randomised trials of daily aspirin versus no aspirin to prevent vascular events such as heart attacks. A second Article reports the effect of aspirin on cancer metastasis. Finally, the third Article, published in The Lancet Oncology, also looked at aspirin’s effect on metastases, this time using a systematic review of observational versus randomised trials. The three papers are discussed further in a Comment.

I'll be asking my doctor whether I should start taking an aspirin a day, since one of the studies suggests that people who take low doses of aspirin regularly and who already have cancer reduce the risk of metastasis—that is, the spread of that cancer to other body parts—by 55 percent.

Peter M. Rothwell, et al. “Effect of daily aspirin on risk of cancer metastasis: a study of incident cancers during randomised controlled trials.” The Lancet, doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(12)60209-8.