(Shutterstock)

Taking Aspirin cuts the risk of skin cancer in women, a new study shows.

Researchers studied about 12,000 women, aged 50-79, for an average of a dozen years and found the longer women took Aspirin the lower their risk of developing melanoma.

Women who took Aspirin for five years or more had 30% less risk of melanoma than those who didn't take the medication.

"Aspirin works by reducing inflammation and this may be why using Aspirin may lower your risk of developing melanoma," co-author Dr. Jean Tang, of Stanford University School of Medicine, said in a statement Monday.

The study was published online this month in the American Cancer Society-reviewed journal Cancer.

Skin cancer is the most common cancer in Canada, according to the Canadian Cancer Society. And the rates of melanoma continue to rise each year for both men and women, largely due to the use of tanning beds.