Millions of ‘Americans’ take angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors to lower their blood pressure, but a new study suggests these drugs might increase their odds of developing lung cancer, according to a story by Steven Reinberg for HealthDay citing a new study.
But lead researcher Laurent Azoulay, an associate professor of epidemiology and oncology at McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, cautioned that the research was based on an observational study that could not prove that these drugs caused lung cancer.
Among people taking the drugs for more than five years, the increased risk might be as high as 14 percent, which could represent a large number of patients, the study authors noted.
“The silver lining of our findings is that while we found an association, the risk at the individual patient level is likely low, even after 10 years of use,” Azoulay was quoted as saying.
“For this reason, this should not deter patients from taking these drugs, should their physician deem the treatment appropriate.”
Drug link to lung cancer
