A regular dose of aspirin could reduce the risk of cancer in those who are overweight, according to a recent study.

Researchers at Newcastle University and the University of Leeds revealed that being overweight more than doubled the risk of colon cancer, especially in people with Lynch Syndrome, an inherited genetic disorder which affects genes responsible for detecting and repairing damage in the DNA, Medical News today reported. However, their study found that this risk could be counteracted by taking a regular dose of aspirin.

"This is important for people with Lynch Syndrome but affects the rest of us too. Lots of people struggle with their weight and this suggests the extra cancer risk can be cancelled by taking an aspirin," Professor Sir John Burn, who led the research collaboration, said in a statement. ""This research adds to the growing body of evidence which links an increased inflammatory process to an increased risk of cancer."

For the international study, researchers from 16 countries followed "nearly 1,000 patients with Lynch Syndrome, in some cases for over 10 years," The Business Standard reported.

The study participants began either taking two aspirins (600 mg) every day for two years or a placebo. When they were followed up ten years later, 55 had developed bowel cancers and those who were obese were more than twice as likely to develop this cancer -- in fact 2.75 times as likely.

""The lesson for all of us is that everyone should try to maintain a healthy weight and for those already obese the best thing is to lose weight. However, for many patients this can be very difficult so a simple aspirin may be able to help this group," Mathers said.

The findings are detailed in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.