Garland L, Guillen-Rodriguez J, Hsu CH, et al. - Since epidemiologic and preclinical investigations have supported a chemopreventive influence of aspirin (ASA) on lung cancer risk, researchers compared modulating influences of intermittent vs continuous low dose ASA on nasal epithelium gene expression and arachidonic acid metabolism among current heavy smokers enrolled in this randomized, double-blinded investigation. They randomized 54 participants to intermittent (ASA 81 mg daily for one week/placebo for one week) or continuous (ASA 81 mg daily) for 12 weeks. They found that the recognized carcinogenesis gene signatures in nasal epithelium of current smokers were minimally influenced by low dose ASA. They, however, also noted that low dose ASA caused wide-ranging genomic alterations in nasal epithelium, this implies that nasal brushings are useful as a substitute to measure gene expression responses to chemoprevention. The possible utility of prostaglandin E2 metabolite as a marker for smoking-related gene expression changes and systemic inflammation was suggested in this study.