Recent evidence indicates that aspirin may play a role in reducing some of the toxic effects of a platinum-based treatment for cancer, cisplatin. This drug although often extremely effective in slowing down the growth of certain cancers, does have some important side effects.

Work in New York at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine suggests that treatment with salicylate can help to reduce the damage to kidneys and to hearing. In experimental work, rats are known to show these side effects of cisplatin under treatment. For the human patient the usual method of providing salicylate is by the use of aspirin. This is rapidly converted through body metabolism to salicylate in the blood. The report circulated by Reuters was based on a publication in the journal Laboratory Investigation.