Treated hypertension not linked with breast cancer

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

NEW YORK, Aug 24 (Reuters) The rate of breast cancer among postmenopausal women with high blood pressure (hypertension) who are taking antihypertensive drugs is comparable with that seen the general population, researchers report, although there may be some risk associated with untreated hypertension.

''Elevated blood pressure has been proposed to be a risk factor for breast cancer but the results remain controversial,'' Dr Annamarja Lindgren, of Kuopio University Hospital, Finland, and colleagues write in the International Journal of Cancer.

The researchers used data from the Finnish Cancer Registry to assess the rate of breast cancer among 9,112 postmenopausal women with hypertension included in a community-based hypertension register.

Of the 9,112 women, 7,314 were using antihypertensive drugs and 1,782 were not. (The report does not indicate the status of the remaining 16 subjects.) The average diastolic blood pressure (the lower number in the blood pressure reading) in the two groups was 98.4 mm Hg and 103.5 mm Hg, respectively, and the average systolic blood pressure (the higher number) was 175 mm Hg and 184 mm Hg, respectively.

The women were followed for an average of 27 years. During follow-up, 251 cases of breast cancer cases were diagnosed. The overall frequency of breast cancer in hypertensive women was not significantly different from the rate report for women in the general population, the investigators report.

Of the 251 women with breast cancer, 199 were in the group taking antihypertensive drugs at the beginning of the study and 52 were in the group not. The use of antihypertensive drugs at the beginning of the study was not associated with an increased risk of breast cancer, Dr Lindgren and colleagues found.

However, a positive association was observed between diastolic blood pressure and cancer risk among women who were not using antihypertensive drugs when the study began - these women had a 26 per cent increase in risk per 10 mm Hg increase in diastolic blood pressure.

Women who were using antihypertensive drugs at the start of the study had a 10 per cent reduction in risk per 10 mm Hg decrease in diastolic blood pressure.

Apart from these observations, the team concludes, the findings ''can also be taken as a piece of evidence for the safety of antihypertensive drugs used by these women over three decades.'' REUTERS SKB RAI0934

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