Diuretic spironolactone also reduces prostate cancer risk, finds study
Delhi: The use of spironolactone may lower the risk of prostate cancer, according to a recent study. The findings of the study were presented at the European Association of Urology 2020 virtual congress and subsequently published in the journal Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases.
Spironolactone is a cheap and effective diuretic used to manage heart failure and hypertension. It also imparts anti-androgenic effects through its non-selective binding to steroid receptors and hence may also affect prostate cancer risk.
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.
Key findings of the study include:
- Multivariable analyses indicated reduced risk of PCa among those ever exposed to spironolactone (odds ratio [OR] 0.83), with a stronger association for current users (OR: 0.77) than past users (OR: 0.88) and decreasing risk with increasing dose.
- No association was observed for thiazide exposure and PCa risk.
- Biases due to differences in prescribing patterns or frequency of PSA testing may have influenced these findings.
"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
