阿司匹林让人吃惊的另一面

The benefits of aspirin were also apparent many years after the trials had ended.
试验结束后的很多年后，阿司匹林的效果也仍旧明显。

After five years, death rates for all cancers fell by 35% and for gastrointestinal cancers by 54%.
五年后，所有癌症的死亡率下降了35%，而胃肠道癌症的死亡率则下降了54%。

A long-term follow-up of patients showed that the 20-year risk of cancer death remained 20% lower in those who had taken aspirin.
一项长期的病情跟踪报告显示，那些服用阿司匹林的患者的20年内的癌症死亡风险比那些不服用的低了20%。

The study revealed that the effect takes time to accrue, so aspirin must be taken over a long period.
这项研究揭示了阿司匹林的效果是随着时间而递增的，所以必须长期服用才行。

The latent period for improving oesophageal, pancreatic, brain and lung cancer was about five years of aspirin taking on a daily basis.For stomach and colorectal cancer the effects took ten years and for prostate cancer about 15 years.
每日服用阿司匹林对改善食管癌，胰腺癌，脑癌和肺癌的潜伏期为5年，对胃癌和结直肠癌则要花10年才能起作用，而前列腺癌则要15年。

The means by which aspirin prevents cancer is not well understood.
这意味着目前还不清楚阿司匹林到底是怎么预防癌症的。

It is believed that it inhibits an enzyme that promotes cell proliferation in tumours.
研究人员认为阿司匹林阻碍了一种在肿瘤内部促进细胞增殖的酶的活动。

The researchers also found that small daily doses of aspirin were enough, and that taking more than 75mg conferred no additional benefits.
研究者还发现，每天服用小剂量的阿司匹林就已足够，剂量超过75mg后不会再增加效果。

Those starting on aspirin in their late 40s or 50s benefit most.
那些从四五十岁末就开始服用阿司匹林的人得到的效果最好。

Current guidelines on using aspirin for reducing the chances of a stroke or heart attack rightly warn of the small risk of ulcers and of dangerous bleeding in the stomach.
目前在用阿司匹林治疗中风或者心脏病时，用药说明上会明确提醒有可能出现溃疡和危险性胃出血。

These guidelines will probably have to be revised given the new findings.
而鉴于这些新发现，这些说明很可能将要被修改了。

However, it remains unlikely that popping aspirin will be recommended for everyone like a vitamin supplement.
不过阿司匹林泡腾片不大可能像维生素补充剂一样被推广至每一个人。

Aspirin is a highly cost-effective treatment: taking it for five to ten years easily beats initiatives to screen for breast and prostate cancers.
服用阿司匹林是一种非常划算的治疗：只要吃五到十年，就能打败那些让你做乳腺癌或者前列腺癌扫描的建议。

To put it another way, ask yourself what a pharmaceuticals firm might charge for a drug that would reduce the chance of death by cancer by 20%—and then note that 100 days' supply of low-dose aspirin can cost less than a dollar.
换种说法，问问你自己，什么样的医药公司在看到100天的小剂量阿司匹林供应量还值不到一美元时，会对这种能够减少20%癌症死亡几率的药品开价呢？

By anyone's measure, that is a bargain.
不管按照哪一方的标准，这都是一笔非常划算的交易。