title: Cancer risk in people with epilepsy using valproate-sodium.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Based on reports of antitumour properties of sodium-valproate, we hypothesised that valproate has a cancer-protective effect in people with epilepsy. We aimed to determine cancer risk in people with epilepsy using sodium-valproate.
  
  
  METHODS
  Continuous data for 2997 people with epilepsy who had been prescribed valproate for at least two years, and for 11,988 unexposed people were provided by the UK General Practice Research Database. Hazard ratios (HRs) for all cancers and individual cancers between the exposed and unexposed groups, with smoking and alcohol consumption and age as covariates, were calculated using the Cox proportional hazards method.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Exposure to valproate had no influence on the incidence of the composite of all cancers [HR: 1.19, 95% CI: 0.97-1.47, P = 0.10]; there was, however, a significant excess of colon cancers [HR: 3.95, 95% CI: 1.97-7.92, P = 0.001] and a trend towards an excess of prostate neoplasms [HR: 2.15, 95% CI: 0.92-5.02, P = 0.08] and in addition, a trend towards reduced incidence of breast cancer [HR: 0.40, 95% CI: 0.14-1.30, P = 0.08] in the exposed group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The lack of an inverse association between valproate use and hazard ratios for all cancers and several individual cancer sites does not lend support for a cancer-protective role for valproate.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Dayanand Medical College, Ludhiana, India.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: G S
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Bell
authors.forename: P Hernáiz
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Driever
authors.forename: J W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Sander
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D015984:Causality; D015897:Comorbidity; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000150:complications* / Q000188:drug therapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012306:Risk; D014635:Valproic Acid / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D014635:Valproic Acid