30 Mar, 2010 in
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Medical health news and information.| By Kathleen Doheny HealthDay Reporter FRIDAY, March 26 (HealthDay News) — Treatment with blood pressure-lowering drugs known as beta blockers appears to help lower the spread of breast cancer in women, a team of British as well as German researchers report. The drugs are believed to work by preventing stress hormones from stimulating cancer cells. “Beta- blocker drugs compete with stress hormones as well as bind to the alike target receptors [on a cellular level], but unlike stress hormones, dont activate cancer cells,” said Dr. Des Powe, a senior healthcare research scientist at Queen’s Health examination Centre, Nottingham University Hospital NHS Trust, in Nottingham, England. Powe is due to existing the findings Friday at the annual European Breast Cancer Conference in Barcelona, Spain. Powe as well as his colleagues from the U.K. as well as Germany evaluated 466 cancer patients: 92 had received blood pressure-lowering medications as well as 43 of those 92, or nearly half, were on beta blockers at the time of their breast cancer diagnosis. Those on beta blockers had a substantial reduction in the formation of distant cancers, or metastases, as well as of local recurrence. They had a 71% reduced risk of death from breast cancer during the study compared to those who were either using other blood pressure drugs or weren’t on any blood pressure medications. Those on beta blockers as well as had a 57% reduced risk of getting a secondary cancer. “Our study was performed retrospectively, using patient notes [from women] that had received treatment in the unhurried 1980s as well as 1990s,” Powe said. Other experts called the results interesting, but preliminary. “The concept of controlling tumor growth by preventing a stress or inflammatory response isn’t novel,” said Dr. Cathie Chung, a health examination oncologist as well as an assistant professor of oncology at the City of Hope National Health examination Center in Duarte, Calif. For instance, other research has found that women with breast cancer who regularly take aspirin, which is an anti-inflammatory, may possess a decreased risk of recurrence.
“I think this study is interesting, but very far from being conclusive,” said Chung. It’s not known, she said, whether there is a real association or whether it may be due to chance or another factor. “There is more work to be done before you can say whether this relationship is meaningful as well as will hold up,” agreed Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, deputy essential health examination officer for the American Cancer Society. As in other retrospective studies, he said, more research is needed to verify the potential link. “There are many other factors that come into play that could explain what happened,” Lichtenfeld said. “What incase the women who take the beta blockers are more attuned to their health as well as they may be using best care of themselves?” Similar Chung, he agreed the proposed association isn’t far-fetched, just that more study is needed. Previous research, Lichtenfeld said, has found a reduced rate of skin cancer among men who take another class of blood pressure-lowering drug. Powe said he plans to do another study to validate the results.
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