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Aspirin may reduce death risk from lethal prostate cancer, a new study claims. Though not a clinical trial, the study adds to growing body of evidence that regular aspirin intake may alter overall cancer risk.

According to Fox News, prostate cancer often does not spread beyond the organ and thus does not lower survival significantly 5 and 10 years after diagnosis. However in some cases when it does spread to the bone, five-year survival is reduced to about 28 percent. The new study showed that men who took at least three tablets a week had lowered risk of dying from prostate cancer.

Health Day reported that the risk in the study was lowered by about 40 percent. The findings were presented at a recent meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Researchers stopped short of claiming a cause-effect link as such a link can only be explained through a clinical trial. The study was based on data from 22,000 obtained from a three-decade Physicians' Health Study.

Though the study did not explain the findings, it is believed that aspirin's ability to decrease blood platelet count can make cancer cells a target of the immune system. While aspirin has been shown to decrease risk of death, researchers said it did not seem to alter the risk of developing prostate cancer.