In a nationwide study of patients with chronic viral hepatitis in Sweden, the long-term effects of low-dose (≤160 mg) aspirin on incident hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), liver-related mortality, and gastrointestinal bleeding were investigated. 50,275 patients with chronic hepatitis B or hepatitis C who did not have a history of aspirin use at baseline were identified in Sweden registries. The results demonstrated that, with a median of 7.9 years of follow-up, lower risk of HCC was observed in aspirin users as compared to non-users (adjusted hazard ratio: 0.69, 95%CI: 0.62 to 0.76) and the association appeared to be duration-dependent, with lower risk in longer duration of aspirin use. Besides, the 10-year liver-related mortality was 11.0% among aspirin users and 17.9% among non-users.

Keywords: Aspirin / Hepatocellular Carcinoma / Liver-related Mortality

Reference: Simon et al. N Engl J Med. 2020; 382(11):1018-1028