Aspirin use and breast cancer risk: a meta-analysis and meta-regression of observational studies from 2001 to 2005

Purpose To examine the recent epidemiological studies on aspirin use and breast cancer risk published from 2001 to 2005 within a meta-analysis, to investigate reasons for heterogeneity between the individual studies and to analyse a dose-response-relationship considering frequency and duration of use. Methods We systematically searched for cohort-studies and case-control-studies from 2001–2005, which evaluated the association between aspirin and breast cancer risk. We calculated a pooled estimate for the relative risk (RR) and investigated reasons for heterogeneity between the individual studies and analysed a dose-response-relationship using random effects mixed models. Results We identifi…