Blood pressure medications linked to higher cancer risk

London, June 14 (ANI): Researchers have discovered that there is a high risk of cancer associated with a group of blood pressure medications.

University Hospitals Case Medical Center cardiologists have said that a drug group called angiotensin-receptor blockers (ARBs) used by millions for high blood pressure, heart failure, cardiovascular risk reduction and diabetic kidney disease patients has "significantly increased risk of new cancer".

University Hospitals Harrington-McLaughlin Heart and Vascular Institute's Drs. Ilke Sipahi, Daniel I. Simon and James C.

Fang recently completed a meta-analysis of over 60,000 patients randomly assigned to take either an ARB or a control medication.

"We have found the risk of new cancers was increased with these medications by 8-11 percent," Lancet quoted Dr. Ilke Sipahi, associate director of heart failure and transplantation and assistant professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, as saying.

"Most importantly, risk of lung cancer was increased by 25 percent."

The study doesn't find any such effect in breast cancer patients though.

"This is the first time an association between ARBs and cancer development is suggested," Dr. Sipahi continued.

"While our findings are robust, they need to be replicated in other studies before they can be considered as definitive."

Their findings are published online today at The Lancet Oncology. (ANI)