WORLD
NSAID painkillers linked to risk of kidney cancer
Baku, September 16 (AZERTAC). The long-term use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as Advil, Motrin and Aleve may slightly increase the risk for developing kidney cancer, Harvard researchers report.
Millions of people use these drugs regularly for pain and they have been associated with reducing the risk of some cancers, the researchers added.
The report was published in the Sept. 12 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.
The researchers began the study because there was some epidemiological evidence, mainly from small case-control studies, of a link between the prolonged use of analgesics (pain-relieving medicines) and kidney cancer.
For the study, Cho`s team collected data on 77,525 women and 49,403 men who took part in the Nurses` Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. Among these individuals, the researchers looked for an association between kidney cancer and the use of different types of pain-relievers.
Over 16 years of follow-up for the women and 20 years for the men, there were 333 cases of renal cell cancer.
Although there was no association found between the risk for renal cell cancer and aspirin and acetaminophen use, there was an increased between regular use of non-aspirin NSAIDs and renal cell cancer. That resulted in a 51 percent increase in the relative risk of developing the condition, the researchers noted.
Eric Jacobs, strategic director of pharmacoepidemiology at the American Cancer Society, said that "this well-designed study adds to the evidence that long-term regular use of non-aspirin NSAIDs, such as ibuprofen or naproxen, may modestly increase risk of kidney cancer."
Another expert, Dr. Matthew Galsky, an assistant professor of medicine, hematology, medical oncology and urology at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City, doesn`t think most people taking NSAIDs have to worry.
Most patients taking NSAIDs don`t need to worry, Galsky said. "For the average user of non-aspirin NSAIDs the risk is not of significance; for the person taking these medicines daily for over 10 years, it is food for thought," he said.