Aspirin’s Role in Treating MPNs
Published on April 16, 2014
Aspirin can reduce blood clots and, therefore, aid in the prevention of thrombocythemia. MPN expert Dr. Jorge Cortes of MD Anderson Cancer Center explains the role of aspirin in the treatment of myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs).
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Transcript | Aspirin's Role in Treating MPNs
Please remember the opinions expressed on Patient Power are not necessarily the views of our sponsors, contributors, partners or Patient Power. Our discussions are not a substitute for seeking medical advice or care from your own doctor. That's how you’ll get care that's most appropriate for you.
Please remember the opinions expressed on Patient Power are not necessarily the views of MD Anderson Cancer Center, its medical staff or Patient Power. Our discussions are not a substitute for seeking medical advice or care from your own doctor. That’s how you’ll get care that’s most appropriate for you.
Andrew Schorr:
Dr. Cortes, the pill that anybody can get is low dose aspirin. So you talked about these prescription medicines. Aspirin really has a role?
Dr. Cortes:
Aspirin is important. It does have a role because that one
has a different function. We talked about lowering your platelets. But one of
the things that the platelets do, as I said, is they stick to each other.
That’s their function, that’s what they do. That’s what they’re supposed to do,
stick to each other so that they can stop any bleeding. What aspirin does is
that it decreases the stickiness of the platelets so that when they find each
other they don’t stick as much.
And remember what we’re trying to prevent, one of the
things, one of the major things we’re trying to do is prevent in essential
thrombocythemia, is the formation of clots. So if you have a lot, but at least
they’re less sticky, we will decrease the frequency of developing these clots.
So for some patients, we recommend that they use aspirin, and sometimes that’s
all we recommend. We just say, okay, aspirin is all you need. We use that in
other scenarios, you know.
Some of, you know, that many not have essential
thrombocythemia and your doctor told you, you know, a baby aspirin a day may
help you. Well, we use it for those purposes. You know, for the heart, you
know, if you’re going to form a heart that’s going to give you a heart attack,
decreasing the stickiness is a good thing to try to minimize the formation of
clots. That’s why we use aspirin.
But you’re not going to see a lower platelet count with aspirin. You don’t measure the sticky. There are ways to measure, but we don’t do it routinely. But it’s that stickiness of the platelets is what the aspirin does.
Please remember the opinions expressed on Patient Power are not necessarily the views of MD Anderson Cancer Center, its medical staff or Patient Power. Our discussions are not a substitute for seeking medical advice or care from your own doctor. That’s how you’ll get care that’s most appropriate for you.