Low-dose aspirin use and risk of contralateral breast cancer: a Danish nationwide cohort study

Observational studies of aspirin use and breast cancer risk have provided inconsistent results. The occurrence of contralateral breast cancer (CBC) among breast cancer survivors may serve as a useful high-risk model to identify preventive drug effects. Using this model, we examined the association between post-diagnosis use of low-dose aspirin and risk of CBC. We identified all women recorded with a first primary breast cancer in the Danish Breast Cancer Cooperative Group Database between 1996 and 2012. Information on drug use, tumor and patient characteristics, treatment, and CBC was obtained from nationwide registries. In the main analysis, we defined time-varying post-diagnosis low-dose aspirin use as two or more prescriptions filled during follow-up and applied a one-year exposure lag. Cox proportional hazard regression models were used to calculate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the association between post-diagnosis low-dose aspirin use and CBC risk. Among 52,723 breast cancer patients, 1,444 women developed CBC during a median follow-up of 4.8 years. The adjusted HR for CBC associated with post-diagnosis use of low-dose aspirin was 0.91 (95% CI: 0.75-1.09). We observed no substantial variation in HRs according to pattern of low-dose aspirin use or estrogen receptor status of the first or the contralateral breast cancer. In conclusion, this large nationwide cohort study of breast cancer survivors does not provide strong evidence suggesting an association between post-diagnosis use of low-dose aspirin and risk of CBC.