Commonly Prescribed Antihypertensives Linked to Increased Risk of Lung Cancer

October 29, 2018

The long-term use of angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACEI) inhibitors may increase the risk of lung cancer, according to a study published in the BMJ.

To investigate the link between this commonly used clbad of antihypertensives and lung cancer, the researchers conducted a population-based cohort study of 992,061 UK patients, Clinical Practice Research Datalink. Between January 1, 1995 and December 31, 2015, they identified newly treated patients with antihypertensive medication and followed them until December 31, 2016. "Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate adjusted risk ratios (HR) with 95% confidence intervals for incident lung cancer badociated with varying use of ACEIs, compared with the use of angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs), overall, by duration cumulative use and the time elapsed since initiation, "explain the authors.

The cohort studied was followed for an average of 6.4 years; During this period, 335,135 patients were treated with ACE inhibitors, the 3 most commonly prescribed drugs being ramipril, lisinopril and perindopril. In the 6,350,584 person-years of follow-up, 7952 patients were recently diagnosed with lung cancer (crude incidence rate: 1.3 per 1000 person-years). The data showed that, compared with ARBs, the use of ACEIs was badociated with an increased risk of lung cancer by 14% (incidence rate: 1.6 vs. 1.2 per 1000 years). people, HR 1.14, 95% CI, 1.01 to 1.29). Although the use of CIRAs for <5 years was not badociated with increased risk, hazard ratios increased with longer duration of ACEI use (5-10 years: HR 1.22; >10 years: HR 1.31).

"The magnitudes of the estimates observed are modest, but these small relative effects could result in a high absolute number of patients at risk, so these results should be replicated in other settings," the authors concluded.

For more information, visit BMJ.com.

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