According to a new study, low dose aspirin taken regularly was associated with a reduced risk for cancer.

Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital examined data from two large national studies that include about 136,000 men and women who have been providing detailed information about their overall health for decades.

Researchers identified 20,414 cancers among 88,084 women and 7,571 cancers among 47,881 men during a 32-year follow-up. Regular use of aspirin, two times or more per week, was associated with a 3 percent lower overall risk for cancer. This was mostly due to a 15 percent lower risk for gastrointestinal tract cancers and a 19 percent lower risk for cancers of the colon and rectum.

Click here to review the publication in JAMA, Journal of the American Medical Association.