FRIDAY, May 3, 2019 (HealthDay News) — Atenolol is associated with a reduction in incident intermediate- and low-risk prostate cancer (PCa), according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the American Urological Association, held from May 3 to 6 in Chicago.
Ali Zahalka, M.D., Ph.D., from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Medical Center in Bronx, New York, and colleagues conducted a retrospective review of men who underwent initial prostate biopsy for any clinical indication between 2006 and 2016 to examine the correlation between use of oral beta-blockers and incident PCa. Data were included for 4,182 men who underwent initial prostate biopsy during the study period.
Based on preceding prescription refill history, the researchers found that 669 men (16 percent) were included in the beta-blocker cohort; 350 of these men had benign pathology and 319 had PCa. Of all men with PCa on biopsy, 8.1, 25.0, 4.0, and 16.0 percent had high-, intermediate-, low-, and very low-risk PCa. After adjustment for age, prostate-specific antigen, body mass index, socioeconomic status, cardiovascular disease, and race, the beta-blocker atenolol displayed a significant protective effect on incident low-risk and intermediate-risk PCa (odds ratios, 0.55 and 0.11, respectively).
“Our results, combined with recent results from preclinical models of PCa, provide preliminary support for further research into the use of atenolol as a potential protective pharmacologic agent against de novo PCa or PCa disease progression,” the authors write.
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