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.