The women were randomly assigned to receive either 100 mg of aspirin a day or no aspirin. Over five years of follow-up, aspirin use was found to lower heart attack risk by 47 percent, and mini-stroke (transient ischemic attack) risk by 43 percent. Aspirin did not reduce the risk of larger or persistent strokes from clots or brain bleeds.
Platelet ADP release (Table 3 Table 3 Platelet Size, Nucleotides and ADP Release. ). The patients' platelets released less ADP when incubated with kaolin or when stirred with connective tissue than normal platelets did.
In most cases, it's not the cancer itself but the treatment that causes low platelets. Chemotherapy can make platelet counts fall because it targets cells that grow rapidly. Tumor cells grow and divide quickly, but so do the cells in the bone marrow that produce red blood cells and platelets. Radiation can also cause a low platelet count (also called thrombocytopenia), especially radiation to the pelvic area, because there's a higher proportion of bone marrow in the pelvic bones. But some cancers, particularly lymphoma and leukemia, can lower platelet production if they spread to the bone marrow.