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Colorectal cancer is one of the most common cancers in Norway, which also has one of the highest incidence rates in the world.

Approximately 30% of patients with colorectal cancer develop liver metastases during the course of their disease. Once the disease has spread, it is much more difficult to treat than primary colorectal cancer confined to the bowel.

"Patients rarely die from the primary tumor itself. It is the metastatic disease that is usually life-threatening," says Sheraz Yaqub, professor at the University of Oslo and consultant hepatobiliary surgeon at Oslo University Hospital.

"But even when we remove the tumors surgically, the cancer returns in more than half of patients," says Yaqub.

Previous observational studies have suggested that aspirin use after colorectal cancer treatment may be associated with a lower risk of recurrence and improved survival.

More recent randomized trials have investigated whether aspirin can provide such benefits, particularly in patients with specific molecular alterations in their tumors.

Yaqub and his colleagues wanted to find out whether aspirin could have the same preventive effect in patients whose colorectal cancer had spread to the liver.

"We wanted to know whether we could prevent the cancer from returning by giving aspirin to these patients as well," Yaqub says.

The study has now been published in The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology.

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