An angiotensin receptor blocker drug is one that helps keep blood vessels from constricting – and is generally used to treat high blood pressure. A meta-study published in the Lancet Oncology journal today revealed that angiotensin receptor blockers may increase the risk of cancer. According to this study, angiotensin receptor blockers increase the probability of cancer by about one percent. Put very simply, if you take angiotensin receptor blockers, you are one percent more likely to get cancer, but you aren’t more likely to die from it.
Article Source: Angiotensin receptor blockers – Cancer risk worth the benefit By Personal Money Store
The Lancet Oncology angiotensin receptor blocker study
The data from over 60,000 patients taking angiotensin receptor blockers was re-reviewed by the researchers. This meta-analysis relied on the data of eight trials of angiotensin receptor blocker drugs. All eight trials were published before November 2009. Solid organ cancers are about one percent more likely to happen in patients taking angiotensin receptor blockers. In the context of this study, “significant” means statistically significant – only about one percent. Patients taking these drugs, despite the increased risk of cancer, aren’t a lot more likely to die for the cancer.
The conditions angiotensin receptor blockers treat
Angiotensin receptor blockers, or ARB drugs, are used to treat a wide variety of heart conditions. The angiotensin receptor blocker drug helps relax the muscles around blood vessels, keeping them from contracting. Increasingly, angiotensin receptor blockers are being used in a preventative fashion to help prevent kidney failure and heart attacks. Angiotensin receptor blockers have accounted for over $ 15 billion in sales in just 2009. In the commentary in the Lancet journal, Dr. Steven Nissen wrote:
“These drugs are often overprescribed, as a result of aggressive marketing and in theabsence of evidence that they are better than angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors,” another class of drugs.
Taking an angiotensin receptor blocker? Here's what to do
If you take angiotensin receptor blockers, you should discuss with your doctor exactly the reasons and uses of any drug that you are on. There is a very mild increased risk of cancer with angiotensin receptor blockers. At the exact same time, stopping the drug could put you at a much higher than one percent risk from the conditions it treats.
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CBSNews.com
TheLancet.com
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