A new study has found that ovarian cancer patients taking beta blocker medications for heart disease had better survival rates than those who didn’t.
HOW THE STUDY WAS CONDUCTED
The research, a retrospective study of the health records of 1,425 women who had undergone ovarian cancer treatment between 2000 and 2010, was led by Dr. Anil Sood of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. 269 of the women whose records were researched took beta blockers of two kinds: a nonselective beta antagonist (NSBB) and a beta-1-adrenergic receptor selective agent (SBB).
THE RESULTS
Of the patients who took the NSBB, the median survival rate was 94.9 months and the same median rate was 38 months in the patients that took SBB, indicating that NSBB has some anti-ovarian cancer properties. Of those patients with hypertension, the ones who took NSBB had a median rate of 90 months; the others that took SBB had a median rate of 38.2.
WHAT ARE BETA BLOCKERS?
Beta blockers are used often to help patients with heart issues like hypertension, and they can be used to treat the body’s physical response to stress, which can make a heart beat rapidly.
“Beta-blockers treat a variety of conditions, such as heart disease, high-blood pressure, glaucoma and migraines. They target a receptor protein in heart muscle that causes the heart to beat harder and faster when activated by stress hormones,” Sood said in a statement to the press.
The property of beta blockers that could be helping the ovarian cancer patients, according to researchers, is the way that the drugs protect stress pathways that have a role in the spread and growth of tumors. “Our research has shown that the same stress mechanisms impact ovarian cancer progression, so these drugs could play a new role in cancer treatment,” said Sood.
IMPLICATIONS OF THE STUDY
According to the press release, the data from the study will be used to make “prospective, randomized clinical trials” that further measure the effects of NSBBs on patients. “[The study] also builds on the mounting evidence that beta-blockers may become a key treatment component for many patients in the future,” said Sood.
The entire study can be read in the journal, CANCER.
(PHOTO SOURCE: ehealthMD)
