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Its authors are Sigrun Alba Johannesdottirm, Frank Mehnert, Morten Schmidt, Anne Braae Olesen, and Henrik Toft Sørensen, from Denmark, and Ellen T. Chang, from the United States.
The authors looked at the relationship of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, what are commonly abbreviated NSAIDS, to the development of skin cancer, specifically three types:
- basal cell carcinoma (BCC)
- malignant melanoma (MM)
- squamous cell carcinoma (SCC).
They examined data from 1991 to 2009 in Denmark from a sample of 178,655 people from the northern part of the country.
Ten control groups were set up by age, gender, and country of residence. The use of aspirin and other NSAIDS were gathered from a prescription database.
The Fox News article Common painkillers tied to lower risk of skin cancer quoted Dr. Sigrún Alba Jóhannesdóttir, one of the authors of the study and a professor at the Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark.
He stated, “Previous studies suggest that NSAIDs decrease the risk of some cancer types, especially colorectal cancer. Also, some studies exist on the association between NSAIDs and skin cancer in specific, and they largely support a protective effect.”
Jóhannesdóttir added, “Our study had advantages in the methods used compared with previous studies. We were able to investigate various types and patterns of NSAID use in the general population, we used validated registry data, and we used reliable prescription data collected before cancer diagnosis instead of relying on patients recalling their use.”
Page two concludes with the results.
