Increased risk of cancer in high blood pressure

Connection between hypertension and cancer

27.09.2011

Researchers have discovered a link between the occurrence of high blood pressure and cancer. While no causal link can be demonstrated so far, people suffering from high blood pressure die more often from cancer than the average population, reported cancer researcher Mieke Van Hemelrijck from King's College London at the European Interdisciplinary Cancer Congress in Stockholm.

British and Swedish researchers jointly evaluated data from several cohort studies that collected and documented between 1972 and 2005 comprehensive data from 289,454 men and 288,345 women on health factors such as obesity, hypertension, insulin resistance / hyperglycemia and altered blood lipid levels (dyslipidemia). In the evaluation of the so-called „Me-Can“ Research project on metabolic syndrome. „Cohort Profile: The Metabolic Syndrome and Cancer Project“), the researchers found that men with high blood pressure (hypertension) are more likely to develop cancer and that the likelihood of fatal cancer in men and women with high blood pressure is also well above average. As the British and Swedish researchers reported at the European Interdisciplinary Cancer Congress, this is the result of the largest study to date on hypertension and cancer.

Increased risk of cancer in men with high blood pressure
According to the scientists, the data from the cohort studies show that men with high blood pressure are at a 10 to 20 percent higher risk of cancer. However, in the evaluation of women's medical data, no comparable relationship between high blood pressure and the occurrence of cancer was found, according to cancer researchers. However, according to the experts, it remains unclear why women with high blood pressure do not have a significantly increased risk of developing the disease. It is also surprising that the current research came to a very different conclusion than the second largest study to date on hypertension and cancer. These „The study had previously shown a higher risk of cancer for women than for men“, explained cancer researcher Mieke Van Hemelrijck. The expert on the London King, who specializes in prostate cancer and other urological cancers´s College, however, sees a potential cause of the difference in results in the much larger numbers of patients studied this time.

Lethal cancer more common in hypertensive patients
In the context of their study, the British and Swedish researchers divided the more than 500,000 data sets into different groups depending on the level of blood pressure. They found that eight percent of men with the highest blood pressure died of cancer, while only five percent of men with the lowest blood pressure levels succumbed to cancer. Although the differences between the group with the highest and the lowest blood pressure were significantly less pronounced in women, they nevertheless showed (five to four percent). However, according to the researchers, women with hypertension suffered more frequently from certain cancers such as liver cancer, pancreatic cancer, uterine and cervical cancers, and black skin cancer. According to the cancer researchers, all results have also been confirmed when considering other cancer risk factors such as age, body mass index or tobacco consumption. Also statistical fluctuations in the measurement results could be excluded in the context of the investigations, the scientists continue.

Causal link between cancer and hypertension not proven
Despite the striking combination of high blood pressure and cancer „Researchers can not claim that there is a causal link between hypertension and cancer risk“, explained Mieke Van Hemelrijck. Because so far can not be clearly demonstrated whether the increased blood pressure may have caused the cancer. Nevertheless, the current study results are of great scientific importance, because the blood pressure values ​​of today allow conclusions about the future cancer risk. As Mieke Van Hemelrijck emphasized: „The results are important from the point of view of the health service, since a large part of the population in western countries suffers from hypertension.“ The figures illustrate which wave of cancers is still affecting the population and what kind of challenges this could have for the health care system of the individual states. (Fp)

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Picture: Philipp Flury