Background: Recent laboratory and epidemiological evidence suggests that beta-blockers could inhibit prostate cancer progression.
Methods: We investigated the effect of beta-blockers on prostate cancer-specific mortality in a cohort of prostate cancer patients. Prostate cancer patients diagnosed between 1998 and 2006 were identified from the UK Clinical Practice Research Database and confirmed by cancer registries. Patients were followed up to 2011 with deaths identified by the Office of National Statistics. A nested case-control analysis compared patients dying from prostate cancer (cases) with up to three controls alive at the time of their death, matched by age and year of diagnosis. Odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated using conditional logistic regression.
Results: Post-diagnostic beta-blocker use was identified in 25% of 1184 prostate cancer-specific deaths and 26% of 3531 matched controls. There was little evidence (P=0.40) of a reduction in the risk of cancer-specific death in beta-blocker users compared with non-users (OR=0.94 95% CI 0.81, 1.09). Similar results were observed after adjustments for confounders, in analyses by beta-blocker frequency, duration, type and for all-cause mortality.
Conclusions: Beta-blocker usage after diagnosis was not associated with cancer-specific or all-cause mortality in prostate cancer patients in this large UK study.
Written by:
Cardwell CR, Coleman HG, Murray LJ, O'Sullivan JM, Powe DG. Are you the author?
Cancer Epidemiology & Health Services Research Group, Centre for Public Health, Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK; Centre for Cancer Research and Cell Biology, Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK; Northern Ireland Cancer Centre, Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, Northern Ireland, UK; Department of Cellular Pathology, Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, UK; The John van Geest Cancer Research Centre, Nottingham Trent University, Clifton Lane, Nottingham NG11 8NS, UK.
Reference: Cancer Epidemiol. 2014 Jun;38(3):279-85.
doi: 10.1016/j.canep.2014.03.011
PubMed Abstract
PMID: 24786858
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