People at high risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) should be considered for prophylactic daily aspirin, NSW researchers say.

They believe their systematic review and meta-analysis is the first to examine the HCC-preventive effect of aspirin, other NSAIDs and antiplatelet therapy in people with viral hepatitis B or C, alcoholic liver disease or non-alcoholic steatosis.

Led by gastroenterologist and hepatologist Associate Professor Mark Danta, from Sydney’s St Vincent’s Hospital, the research team found 19 studies including more than 147,000 patients for their systematic review.

Pooling the results of seven matched cohort and case-control studies comparing aspirin with no aspirin showed that aspirin almost halved the incidence of HCC over follow-up.