Some heart medicines may help cancer patients

Cancer has been a nightmare for the drug developing companies as well as the scientists who are constantly trying to find a definitive cure for the disease. Sure, Chemotherapy and Radiation do exist but in the process of killing the cancer cells they also affect the body cells and might cause some side effects. In a bid to understand the cancer cure better, a new study has surfaced, although it is not directly linked to it. The study found that certain drugs that are taken to improve the health of the heart can also have anti-cancer properties. The team of researchers was headed by Anil Sood, an Indian origin scientist from the University of Texas. These researchers analyzed the medical records of 1,425 women who were treated at different medical centers for ovarian cancer between the periods of 2000 to 2010.

The researcher noticed that 193 of the women were taking beta blockers that are known as beta-1 adrenergic receptor (ADRB1) selective agents and 76 were receiving non-selective beta antagonists. The Beta blockers are the drugs that are commonly used to treat hypertension and other heart-related conditions. The researchers said the beta blockers also affect the body’s stress response and may therefore impact cancer progression. Sood said,” We found that patients taking a broad, or non-selective beta blockers were the ones who derived the most benefit compared to those who were not taking any beta blocker or those who were taking a beta-1- selective medication.”

The researchers found that the median survival time was 47.8 months for patients receiving any beta blocker versus 42 months for non-users. Among those who did take the beta-blockers, the median survival time was 94.9 months for those receiving non-selective beta blockers versus 38 months for those receiving ADRB1 selective agents.  The other thing that was noticed was that the patients with hypertension tended to have shorter survival times than patients without hypertension. And among the patients with hypertension, the users of non-selective beta blockers had a longer median survival time than non-users.

Other researchers noted that despite the small number of patients that were taking non-selective beta blockers in this study, the investigators uncovered a dramatic survival advantage that guarantees further analysis. The study will prove to be a helping hand in further research and it was published online in CANCER which is a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society.