ACE inhibitors These high blood pressure tablets can lead to lung cancer

Relationship between blood pressure medication and lung cancer detected

Researchers found that blood pressure medications, which are used by millions of people worldwide, can increase the risk of lung cancer.

McGill University researchers in Montreal found in their current research that widespread blood pressure medications appear to increase the likelihood of developing lung cancer. The physicians published the results of their study in the English-language journal "The BMJ".

When people suffer from hypertension, they often take special medicines. These seem to increase the risk for lung cancer. (Image: Peter Maszlen / fotolia.com)

Lung cancer due to ACE inhibitors?

So-called ACE inhibitors are medicines that are used especially for the treatment of hypertension and chronic heart failure. The investigation has now revealed that ACE inhibitor-taking patients are 14 percent more likely to develop cancer. The risk continued to increase the longer the patients took these drugs. Those who took ACE inhibitors for five years had a 22 percent higher risk of lung cancer. The risk even increased to 31 percent after ten years. The scientists suspect that the drugs cause an accumulation of bradykinin in the lungs, which then leads to cancer.

ACE inhibitors are widespread

Ramipril is the most widely used ACE inhibitor prescribed in 2017 alone in England over 27 million times. Other commonly used names are captopril, cilazapril and enalapri. Up to five million patients in the UK are prescribed ACE inhibitors. The drug is usually used for hypertension or after heart attacks. ACE inhibitors work by reducing the activity of the so-called angiotensin converting enzyme or ACE for short. By blocking this enzyme, the blood vessels relax and dilate, lowering blood pressure, the experts explain.

Researchers examined 992,000 subjects

The study, which was published in the BMJ, examined 992,000 adults who were prescribed medication to regulate blood pressure between 1995 and 2015 in the UK. Patients in the study took one of two types of tablets, either ACE inhibitors or angiotensin receptor blockers, each acting in different ways.

Further research is needed

Compared to patients taking angiotensin receptor blockers, ACE inhibitor-taking subjects were found to be 14 percent more likely to have lung cancer diagnosed within six years. Experts are now planning additional long-term follow-up studies to investigate the impact of these drugs on the incidence of lung cancer. Given the potential negative impact of high blood pressure drugs, these must now be reviewed in further studies, especially on patients who are exposed to the drugs longer, the researchers demand. (As)