Beta Blockers May Also Help Lung Cancer Patients Live Longer

Beta Blockers May Also Help Lung Cancer Patients Live Longer.
New check in suggests that beta blockers, medications that are cast-off to control blood to and heart rhythms, may also help lung cancer patients live longer. The researchers found that patients with non-small-cell lung cancer being treated with emission lived 22 percent longer if they were also captivating these drugs. "These findings were the first, to our knowledge, demonstrating a survival sake associated with the use of beta blockers and radiation therapy for lung cancer," said lead researcher Dr Daniel Gomez, an deputy professor in the department of radiation oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

So "The results betoken that there may be another mechanism, generally unexplored, that could potentially reduce the rates of tumor spread in patients with this very aggressive disease," he added. The clock in was published Jan 9, 2013 in the Annals of Oncology. For the study, Gomez's set compared the outcomes of more than 700 patients undergoing radiation therapy for lung cancer.

The investigators found that the 155 patients irresistible beta blockers for heart problems lived an commonplace of almost two years, compared with an average of 18,6 months for patients not taking these drugs. The findings held even after adjusting for other factors such as age, present of the disease, whether or not chemotherapy was given at the same time, closeness of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and aspirin use, the researchers noted. Beta blockers also improved survival without the cancer spreading to other parts of the body and survival without the disease recurring, they added.

Beta blockers, however, made no idiosyncrasy in the length of survival without the disease progressing in the part of the lungs where it started, the bookwork authors pointed out. How beta blockers might slow cancer's coverlet isn't known. However, the researchers speculate that these drugs may work by suppressing a hormone called norepinephrine, which is known to inspire the spread of cancer cells.

So "Right now, we would not advocate that patients abduct beta blockers for this purpose, until these findings can be validated by prospective trials," Gomez said. "In addition, prospective studies will help us to understand if the mechanism that we propose is correct, and thus if beta blockers are in directly affecting the aggressiveness of this cancer or if these findings are due to the activation or inhibition of another pathway".

For one expert, the workroom raises more questions than it answers. "It is unclear whether beta blockers penury to be started before the cancer is found, or if they still have a utility once the diagnosis is made," said Dr Len Horovitz, a pulmonologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. In addition, Horovitz wonders whether other drugs that close off hormones might deal out the same purpose.

One thing is clear, however, he added. People should not outset taking beta blockers in hopes of preventing or controlling lung cancer, he said. Horovitz did put he thinks trials testing whether or not beta blockers or other hormone-blocking drugs anticipate the spread of lung cancer should be done neartohealth.com. Although the study found a link between beta blocker use in patients undergoing shedding therapy and increased non-small-cell lung cancer survival, it did not result cause-and-effect.