title: Angiotensin receptor blockers and risk of prostate cancer among United States veterans.
abstract: To address concerns regarding increased risk of prostate cancer (PrCA) among angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) users, we used national retrospective data from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) through the Veterans Affairs Informatics and Computing Infrastructure. We identified a total of 543,824 unique Veterans who were classified into either ARB treated or not-treated in 1:15 ratio. The two groups were balanced using inverse probability of treatment weights. A double-robust cox-proportional hazards model was used to estimate the hazard ratio for PrCA incidence. To evaluate for a potential Gleason score stage migration, we conducted weighted Cochrane-Armitage test. Post weighting, the rates of PrCA in treated and not-treated groups were 506 (1.5%) and 8,269 (1.6%), respectively; representing a hazard ratio of (0.91, p-value .049). There was no significant difference in Gleason scores between the two groups. We found a small, but statistically significant, reduction in the incidence of clinically detected PrCA among patients assigned to receive ARB with no countervailing effect on degree of differentiation (as indicated by Gleason score). Findings from this study support Food and Drug Administration's recent conclusion that ARB use does not increase risk of incident PrCA.
authors.affiliation: University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, USA; William J.B. Dorn Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Columbia, SC 29203, USA. gowtham.rao@va.gov
authors.forename: Gowtham A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Rao
authors.forename: Joshua R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Mann
authors.forename: Matteo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bottai
authors.forename: Hiroji
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Uemura
authors.forename: James B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Burch
authors.forename: Charles Lee
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Bennett
authors.forename: Kathlyn Sue
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Haddock
authors.forename: James R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Hébert
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D057911:Angiotensin Receptor Antagonists / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000009:adverse effects; D015331:Cohort Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012306:Risk; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D014728:Veterans / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
chemical_list: D057911:Angiotensin Receptor Antagonists