New research suggests that aspirin can treat cancer pain as effectively as morphine

An aspirin may be just as effective as strong opioid painkillers for cancer patients, according to a new study.

Addictive drugs such as morphine are often prescribed on the NHS to combat the constant pain many cancer patients feel from their tumours.

However, new research has found that there is little evidence to support the use of these pain relievers to treat the disease.

Scientists now believe that weaker, non-addictive medications – including aspirin – may be just as effective at preventing these symptoms while causing fewer side effects. They also concluded that the powerful opioids may actually negatively affect the body’s ability to fight cancer.

The study, carried out by scientists from the University of Warwick and the University of Sydney, comes as the NHS continues to crack down on opioid addiction.

Addictive drugs such as morphine are often prescribed on the NHS to combat the constant pain many cancer patients feel from their tumors (Opioids stock photo)

Over the past four years, the number of prescriptions for these drugs has halved in England – but this push has focused mainly on non-cancer pain.

Researchers examined data from more than 150 clinical trials on the use of opioids to treat cancer symptoms and found that evidence supporting the use of the powerful painkillers was weak and “very few” studies compared their effects with placebo drugs.

The available evidence suggests that weaker medications, including antidepressants, aspirin and low-strength opioids, including codeine, have been just as effective in relieving cancer-related pain as strong opioids such as morphine – which some studies have shown damage the immune system.

However, the study concluded that patients who could not relieve their pain with standard painkillers benefited from a small dose of the synthetic opioid fentanyl – but only if the highly addictive drug was used sparingly.

Researchers also found that fentanyl was associated with a significant number of side effects.

“Opioids are essential for intractable pain and anxiety at the end of life,” says Professor Jane Ballantyne, a pain physician at the University of Washington School of Medicine. “But it’s worth emphasizing that non-opioids are surprisingly effective for some cancer pain and can prevent the problems of addiction.”