Skip to main content
Key Specialties
Cardiology Diabetology Endocrinology Gastroenterology Geriatrics and Gerontology Gynecology and Obstetrics Hematology Infectious Disease Internal Medicine Nephrology Neurology Oncology Pediatrics Respiratory Medicine Rheumatology Surgery
Congress Coverage
2024 ACC Congress 2023 ESMO Congress 2023 EASD Congress 2023 ERS Congress 2023 ESC Congress 2023 EHA Congress 2023 ASCO Annual Meeting
Clinical Collections
Advances in Alzheimer’s

At a glance: The ONWARDS insulin icodec trials

A round-up of the ONWARDS phase 3 clinical trials evaluating the novel weekly insulin icodec in people with diabetes.
ADVANCED SEARCH
Log in
Top
Breast Cancer Research
Published in: Breast Cancer Research 1/2016

Open Access 01-12-2016 | Research article

Long-term use of calcium channel blocking drugs and breast cancer risk in a prospective cohort of US and Puerto Rican women

Authors: Lauren E. Wilson, Aimee A. D’Aloisio, Dale P. Sandler, Jack A. Taylor

Published in: Breast Cancer Research | Issue 1/2016

Login to get access

Abstract

Background

In a recent case–control study, long-term use of calcium channel blocking drugs was associated with a greater-than-twofold increased breast cancer risk. If prospectively collected data confirm that calcium channel blocker use increases breast cancer risk, this would have major implications for hypertension treatment. The objective of this study was to determine whether women using calcium channel blockers for 10 years or more were at increased risk of developing breast cancer compared with women not using calcium channel blockers.

Methods

The Sister Study is a prospective volunteer cohort study of women from the USA and Puerto Rico designed to evaluate environmental and genetic risk factors for breast cancer. Beginning in 2003, women between the ages of 35 and 74 were recruited. They were eligible to participate if they had a sister with breast cancer but had not been diagnosed with breast cancer themselves. In total, 50,884 women enrolled in the cohort between 2003 and 2009; 50,757 women with relevant baseline data and available follow-up data are included in this study. The exposure of interest is current use of calcium channel blocking drugs and the reported duration of use at entry into the cohort. Secondary exposures of interest were the duration and frequency of use for all other subclasses of antihypertensive drugs. Our main outcome is a self-reported diagnosis of breast cancer during the study follow-up period. With patient permission, self-reported diagnoses were confirmed using medical records.

Results

Results showed 15,817 participants were currently using an antihypertensive drug, and 3316 women were currently using a calcium channel blocker at study baseline; 1965 women reported a breast cancer diagnosis during study follow-up. Using Cox proportional hazards modeling, we found no increased risk of breast cancer among women who had been using calcium channel blockers for 10 years or more compared with never users of calcium channel blockers (HR 0.88, 95 % CI 0.58–1.33).

Conclusions

We saw no evidence of increased risk of breast cancer from 10 years or more of current calcium channel blocker use. Our results do not support avoiding calcium channel blocking drugs in order to reduce breast cancer risk.
Appendix
Available only for authorised users
Literature
1.
Li CI, Daling JR, Tang MT, Haugen KL, Porter PL, Malone KE. Use of antihypertensive medications and breast cancer risk among women aged 55 to 74 years. JAMA Intern Med. 2013;173(17)1629–37. doi:10.​1001/​jamainternmed.​2013.​9071.
2.
3.
Li CI, Malone KE, Weiss NS, Boudreau DM, Cushing-Haugen KL, Daling JR. Relation between use of antihypertensive medications and risk of breast carcinoma among women ages 65–79 years. Cancer. 2003;98(7):1504–13. doi:10.​1002/​cncr.​11663.CrossRefPubMed
4.
Fitzpatrick AL, Daling JR, Furberg CD, Kronmal RA, Weissfeld JL. Use of calcium channel blockers and breast carcinoma risk in postmenopausal women. Cancer. 1997;80(8):1438–47.CrossRefPubMed
5.
6.
Sorensen HT, Olsen JH, Mellemkjaer L, Marie A, Steffensen FH, McLaughlin JK, et al. Cancer risk and mortality in users of calcium channel blockers. A cohort study. Cancer. 2000;89(1):165–70.CrossRefPubMed
7.
Michels KB, Rosner BA, Walker AM, Stampfer MJ, Manson JE, Colditz GA, et al. Calcium channel blockers, cancer incidence, and cancer mortality in a cohort of U.S. women: the nurses’ health study. Cancer. 1998;83(9):2003–7.CrossRefPubMed
8.
Fryzek J, Poulsen A, Lipworth L, Pedersen L, Nørgaard M, McLaughlin J, et al. A Cohort study of antihypertensive medication use and breast cancer among Danish women. Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2006;97(3):231–6. doi:10.​1007/​s10549-005-9091-x.CrossRefPubMed
9.
10.
11.
Olsen JH, Sorensen HT, Friis S, McLaughlin JK, Steffensen FH, Nielsen GL, et al. Cancer risk in users of calcium channel blockers. Hypertension. 1997;29(5):1091–4.CrossRefPubMed
12.
13.
14.
15.
Xu Z, Bolick SC, Deroo LA, Weinberg CR, Sandler DP, Taylor JA. Epigenome-wide association study of breast cancer using prospectively collected Sister Study samples. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2013;105(10):694–700.
16.
17.
18.
Gu Q, Burt VL, Dillon CF, Yoon S. Trends in antihypertensive medication use and blood pressure control among United States adults with hypertension: the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2001 to 2010. Circulation. 2012;126(17):2105–14. doi:10.​1161/​circulationaha.​112.​096156.CrossRefPubMed
19.
20.
21.
22.
Pinton P, Ferrari D, Rapizzi E, Virgilio FD, Pozzan T, Rizzuto R. The Ca2+ concentration of the endoplasmic reticulum is a key determinant of ceramide-induced apoptosis: significance for the molecular mechanism of Bcl-2 action. EMBO J. 2001;20(11):2690–701.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
23.
Kondo S, Yin D, Morimura T, Takeuchi J. Combination therapy with cisplatin and nifedipine inducing apoptosis in multidrug-resistant human glioblastoma cells. J Neurosurg. 1995;82(3):469–74.CrossRefPubMed
24.
Shchepotin IB, Soldatenkov V, Buras RR, Nauta RJ, Shabahang M, Evans SRT. Apoptosis of human primary and metastatic colon adenocarcinoma cell lines in vitro induced by 5-fluorouracil, verapamil, and hyperthermia. Anticancer Res. 1994;14(3 A):1027–31.PubMed
25.
Leszczynski D, Zhao Y, Luokkamäki M, Foegh ML. Apoptosis of vascular smooth muscle cells: protein kinase C and oncoprotein Bcl-2 are involved in regulation of apoptosis in non-transformed rat vascular smooth muscle cells. Am J Pathol. 1994;145(6):1265–70.PubMedPubMedCentral
26.
27.
Galli C, Meucci O, Scorziello A, Werge TM, Calissano P, Schettini G. Apoptosis in cerebellar granule cells is blocked by high KCl, forskolin, and IGF-1 through distinct mechanisms of action: The involvement of intracellular calcium and RNA synthesis. J Neurosci. 1995;15(2):1172–9.PubMed
28.
Juntti-Berggren L, Larsson O, Rorsman P, Ämmälä C, Bokvist K, Wåhlander K, et al. Increased activity of L-type Ca2+ channels exposed to serum from patients with type I diabetes. Science. 1993;261(5117):86–90.CrossRefPubMed
29.
Connor J, Sawczuk IS, Benson MC, Tomashefsky P, O'Toole KM, Olsson CA, et al. Calcium channel antagonists delay regression of androgen-dependent tissues and suppress gene activity associated with cell death. Prostate. 1988;13(2):119–30.CrossRefPubMed
30.
31.
Correale P, Tagliaferri P, Celio L, Genua G, Montagnani S, Bianco AR. Verapamil upregulates sensitivity of human colon and breast cancer cells to LAK-cytotoxicity in vitro. Eur J Cancer Clin Oncol. 1991;27(11):1393–5. doi:10.​1016/​0277-5379(91)90018-9.CrossRef
32.
Schüller HM, Orloff M, Reznik GK. Antiproliferative effects of the Ca2+/calmodulin antagonist B859-35 and the Ca2+-channel blocker verapamil on human lung cancer cell lines. Carcinogenesis. 1991;12(12):2301–3.CrossRefPubMed
33.
Uehara H, Nakaizumi A, Baba M, Iishi H, Tatsuta M. Inhibition by verapamil of hepatocarcinogenesis induced by N-nitrosomorpholine in Sprague-Dawley rats. Br J Cancer. 1993;68(1):37–40.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
Metadata
Title
Long-term use of calcium channel blocking drugs and breast cancer risk in a prospective cohort of US and Puerto Rican women
Authors
Lauren E. Wilson
Aimee A. D’Aloisio
Dale P. Sandler
Jack A. Taylor
Publication date
01-12-2016
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
Breast Cancer Research / Issue 1/2016
Electronic ISSN: 1465-542X
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s13058-016-0720-6

Other articles of this Issue 1/2016

Breast Cancer Research 1/2016 Go to the issue

Review

Accurate prediction of response to endocrine therapy in breast cancer patients: current and future biomarkers

Research article

Association of infertility and fertility treatment with mammographic density in a large screening-based cohort of women: a cross-sectional study

Research article

Reduced BRCA1 transcript levels in freshly isolated blood leukocytes from BRCA1 mutation carriers is mutation specific

Research article

Mammographic density and breast cancer risk: a mediation analysis

Research article

CD24 cell surface expression in Mvt1 mammary cancer cells serves as a biomarker for sensitivity to anti-IGF1R therapy

Research article

Tumor characterization and treatment monitoring of postsurgical human breast specimens using harmonic motion imaging (HMI)
Webinar | 19-02-2024 | 17:30 (CET)

Keynote webinar | Spotlight on antibody–drug conjugates in cancer

Watch now

Antibody–drug conjugates (ADCs) are novel agents that have shown promise across multiple tumor types. Explore the current landscape of ADCs in breast and lung cancer with our experts, and gain insights into the mechanism of action, key clinical trials data, existing challenges, and future directions.

Dr. Véronique Diéras
Prof. Fabrice Barlesi
Developed by: Springer Medicine
Image Credits