Diuretic spironolactone also reduces prostate cancer risk, finds study

Kerri Beckmann, King's College London, London, UK, and colleagues investigated the association between spironolactone use and prostate cancer risk. For comparison, associations with thiazide diuretics which do not have anti-androgenic properties were also examined.

The researchers undertook a matched case-control study using population-wide data from the Prostate Cancer Data Base Sweden (PCBaSe). Al the cases of prostate cancer were matched by birth year and county with prostate-cancer free controls selected from the general population (1:5). associations between spironolactone use (dose and duration) and prostate cancer risk, and for thiazides were examined using multivariable conditional logistic regression.

Three percent of the 31,591 cases and 4% of the 156,802 controls were prescribed spironolactone.

"Prostate cancer risk was reduced among men exposed to the diuretic spironolactone. Further investigation of spironolactone's potential chemopreventive effects is warranted," concluded the authors.

The study, "Spironolactone use is associated with lower prostate cancer risk: a population-wide case-control study," is published in the journal

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41391-020-0220-8