What if a simple aspirin seal could help fight cancer? That seems almost too good to be true. Yet researchers uncovered an unsuspected mechanism: aspirin could limit the spread of certain cancers. This discovery, due to chance, may well change the situation in the fight against this disease. But how can such a common drug have such an effect?
A scientific chance that changes everything
Initially, researchers were not interested in aspirin. Their aim was to study metastases, these cancer cells that spread in the body. By conducting their research on mice, they identified a gene, ARHGEF1, which plays a key role in the activation of immune cells, including T cells, these “soldiers” of the immune system capable of recognizing and destroying tumour cells.
Read more on the next page.