Australian experts have hailed as "remarkable" and "significant" a study that found taking aspirin daily cuts your risk of getting cancer, but cautioned the drug should not be regarded as a "magic bullet".

The British study, which was published in the medical journal The Lancet, analysed eight trials involving 25,570 patients, and found a daily dose of aspirin of less than 75 milligrams - about a quarter of an aspirin tablet - reduced cancer deaths by an average of 21 per cent during the studies and 34 per cent after five years.

"It's fairly interesting that such a widespread - and these days relatively cheap drug - should have such a measurable impact on deaths from cancer, said Cancer Council of Australia's chief executive Professor Ian Olver.

"So it's a remarkable finding given the fact that it can be easily and cheaply implemented across the population."

The director of St Vincent's Clinical School, Professor Allan Spigelman, called the study "strong and "robust" because of its large sample size and use of multiple trials, and said it built on earlier work about the protective benefits of aspirin on bowel cancer.