The latest study suggests that the popular pain killer can inhibit melanoma. In the largest investigation of its kind, published in the journal "Cancer", researchers found that women who regularly take aspirin have a decreased risk of developing melanoma, and that the protection may be cumulative — the longer they take it, the lower their risk.
More than 61,000 people were diagnosed with skin cancer in the U.S. in 2009, the latest year for which statistics were collected by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and deaths from melanoma cost $3.5 billion in lost productivity each year.
Despite greater awareness of the dangers of tanning, as well as the importance of protecting sun-exposed exposed skin with clothing or sunscreen, diagnoses of melanoma have inched upward by 2% each year between 2000 and 2009.