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TUESDAY, Sept. 8, 2020<\/p>\n
Blood pressure<\/a> drugs<\/a> don’t increase the risk of cancer<\/a>, according to the largest study to examine the issue.<\/p>\n A possible link between blood pressure<\/a> drugs<\/a> and cancer<\/a> has been the subject of debate for decades, but evidence has been inconsistent and conflicting.<\/p>\n For this study, researchers analyzed data from 31 clinical trials<\/a> of blood pressure drugs that involved 260,000 people. Investigators of all the trials provided information on which participants developed cancer<\/a>. Much of this information hasn’t been published before, so the new study is the most detailed to date.<\/p>\n It looked at five blood pressure drugs separately: angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, angiotensin II receptor blockers<\/a> (ARBs<\/a>), beta blockers<\/a>, calcium channel blockers<\/a> (CCBs<\/a>), and diuretics.<\/p>\n The researchers estimated the effect of each drug class on the risk of developing any type of cancer<\/a>, of dying from cancer<\/a>, and of developing breast, colon, lung, prostate and skin cancers<\/a>.<\/p>\n The study found no evidence that any of the drug classes increased cancer<\/a> risk. That was true regardless of participants’ age, gender, body size, smoking<\/a> status and previous use of blood pressure medication, according to findings presented recently at an online meeting of the European Society of Cardiology.<\/p>\n Research presented at meetings is typically considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.<\/p>\n There was no indication that cancer risk rose with longer use of blood pressure drugs.<\/p>\n “Our results should reassure the public about the safety of antihypertensive drugs with respect to cancer, which is of paramount importance given their proven benefit for protecting against heart attacks<\/a> and strokes<\/a>,” said study author Emma Copland, an epidemiologist at the University of Oxford in the U.K.<\/p>\n — Robert Preidt<\/p>\n ![\"MedicalNews\"](\"https:\/\/images.medicinenet.com\/images\/HealthDay\/healthday.png\")
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