The Use of Antihypertensive Medication and the Risk of Breast Cancer in a Case-Control Study in a Spanish Population: The MCC-Spain Study

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 11; no. 8; p. e0159672
• Main Authors: Gómez-Acebo, Inés, Dierssen-Sotos, Trinidad, Palazuelos, Camilo, Pérez-Gómez, Beatriz, Lope, Virginia, Tusquets, Ignasi, Alonso, M Henar, Moreno, Victor, Amiano, Pilar, Molina de la Torre, Antonio José, Barricarte, Aurelio, Tardon, Adonina, Camacho, Antonio, Peiro-Perez, Rosana, Marcos-Gragera, Rafael, Muñoz, Montse, Michelena-Echeveste, Maria Jesus, Ortega Valin, Luis, Guevara, Marcela, Castaño-Vinyals, Gemma, Aragonés, Nuria, Kogevinas, Manolis, Pollán, Marina, Llorca, Javier
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 10-08-2016; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Adrenergic beta-Antagonists - therapeutic use; Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Angiotensin; Angiotensin II; Angiotensin Receptor Antagonists - therapeutic use; Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitors - therapeutic use; Antihypertensive agents; Antihypertensive Agents - adverse effects; Antihypertensive Agents - therapeutic use; Antihypertensives; Biology and Life Sciences; Body mass; Body Mass Index; Body size; Body weight; Breast cancer; Breast Neoplasms - drug therapy; Breast Neoplasms - etiology; Breast Neoplasms - metabolism; Calcium; Calcium Channel Blockers - adverse effects; Calcium Channel Blockers - therapeutic use; Calcium channels; Canals de calci; Cancer; Case-Control Studies; Comparative analysis; Complications and side effects; Control methods; Càncer de mama; Diuretics; Diuretics - therapeutic use; Drugs; Enzyme inhibitors; ErbB-2 protein; Female; Health risk assessment; Health risks; Hormone therapy; Hormones; Hormonoteràpia; Humans; Hypertension - drug therapy; Invasiveness; Medical research; Medicine and Health Sciences; Middle Aged; Odds Ratio; Oncologia; Oncology; Overweight; Patient outcomes; Peptidyl-dipeptidase A; Physical Sciences; Physiological aspects; Population studies; Receptor, ErbB-2 - metabolism; Risk; Risk Factors; Spain; Studies; Tumors; Womens health; Spain
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0159672

The evidence on the relationship between breast cancer and different types of antihypertensive drugs taken for at least 5 years is limited and inconsistent. Furthermore, the debate has recently been fueled again with new data reporting an increased risk of breast cancer among women with a long history of use of antihypertensive drugs compared with nonusers.
In this case-control study, we report the antihypertensive drugs-breast cancer relationship in 1,736 breast cancer cases and 1,895 healthy controls; results are reported stratifying by the women's characteristics (i.e., menopausal status or body mass index category) tumor characteristics and length of use of antihypertensive drugs.
The relationship among breast cancer and use of calcium channel blockers (CCB) for 5 or more years had odds ratio (OR) = 1.77 (95% CI, 0.99 to 3.17). Stratifying by BMI, the OR increased significantly in the group with BMI ≥ 25 (OR 2.54, 95% CI, 1.24 to 5.22). CCBs were even more strongly associated with more aggressive tumors, (OR for invasive tumors = 1.96, 95% CI = 1.09 to 3.53; OR for non ductal cancers = 3.97, 95% CI = 1.73 to 9.05; OR for Erbb2+ cancer = 2.97, 95% CI: 1.20 to 7.32). On the other hand, premenopausal women were the only group in which angiotensin II receptor blockers may be associated with breast cancer (OR = 4.27, 95% CI = 1.32 to 13.84) but this could not be identified with any type or stage. Use of angiotensin-converting-enzyme inhibitors, beta blockers and diuretics were not associated with risk.
In this large population-based study we found that long term use of calcium channel blockers is associated with some subtypes of breast cancer (and with breast cancer in overweight women).