Washington– Blood thinners like that of aspirin can aid to fight cancer by preventing shelter to tumor cells that are wandering, a U.S. research team reported on Friday.

Experiments carried out on mice showed that using aspirin along with an experimental anti clotting drug reduced the rate of spread and growth of melanoma and breast tumors.

Blood contains cells known as platelets. These platelets feed and shelter the tumor cells in the bloodstream. This makes it easier for tumor to metastasize or spread, the research team said.

Inactivating the platelets can help to slow down or prevent the spread of tumor, the researchers wrote in the study published in the Journal of Cellular Biochemistry.

This study could lend support to other findings, which show persons who take aspirin or other similar drugs that have an effect on a gene and protein known as COX-2, including ibuprofen, aspirin and Celebrex (COX-2 inhibitor), have a reduced risk of certain cancers.

There is a proposal that taking ibuprofen or aspirin along with chemotherapy can make later more successful.

“Previous research has found out that tumor cells activate platelets and also that mice which had malfunctioning platelets had considerably lesser metastases,” said Dr. Katherine Weilbaecher, who lead the study.

“We know that platelets possess many traits that may help tumor cells and we are now working to break the likely lethal partnership”, Weilbaecher added.

The researchers used usual aspirin along with an experimental anti-platelet drug known as APT102. St. Louis based APT Therapeutics made APT102, the drug that interferes with clotting.

When the researchers introduced breast cancer and melanoma cells into mice, the tumors spread quickly to the bone. But when the mice were given APT102 and aspirin, the tumors, which grew and spread, were smaller. Both drugs didn’t have an effect on its own, possibly because the process of platelet making must be attacked from various directions, Weilbaecher said.

“Aspirin denies platelets from producing thromboxane, a substance that assist clotting,” Weilbaecher added.

“APT102 drug removes a compound known as ADP, which is released by tumor cells and which stimulates clumping of platelets. Thus APT102 denies platelet activation in reaction to the tumor cells.”

Weilbaecher and the team are trying their theory in women who have advanced breast cancer. They test aspirin and Plavix, an antiplatelet drug, to find out whether the combination decreases the amount of tumor cells present in the blood.

Plavix, which is sold by Sanofi-Aventis and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co, is one of the best-selling drugs in the world.

Related Links:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspirin

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