ArticleBritish journal of clinical pharmacology2017
Spironolactone use and risk of incident cancers: a retrospective, matched cohort study.
Article in British journal of clinical pharmacology, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
30 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 60 citations in OpenAlex.
- Association between antihypertensive medication use and kidney cancer risk: a meta-analysis accounting for hypertension.BMC cancer · 2025Pooled it
- Tumor risks of finerenone in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus complicated with chronic kidney disease: a meta-analysis and systematic review of randomized controlled trials.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2023Pooled it
- Anti-hypertensive medications and risk of colorectal cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Cancer causes & control : CCC · 2022Pooled it
- Finerenone versus spironolactone in patients with chronic kidney disease and type 2 diabetes: a target trial emulation.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Safety of Antiandrogens for the Treatment of Female Androgenetic Alopecia with Respect to Gynecologic Malignancies.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Review
- Association of spironolactone use with risk of urinary tract cancer in the general population: A matched population-based cohort study.PloS one · 2024Article
- Review
- Article
- Prevention and Treatment of Chemotherapy-Induced Alopecia: What Is Available and What Is Coming?Current oncology (Toronto, Ont.) · 2023Review
- Protective role of mineralocorticoid receptor signaling in urothelial tumorigenesis.American journal of cancer research · 2023Article
- Antihypertensive medications and risk of colorectal cancer in British Columbia.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2023Article
- Antihypertensive Therapy and Incidence of Cancer.Journal of clinical medicine · 2022Article
- The Potential Tumor-Suppressor DHRS7 Inversely Correlates with EGFR Expression in Prostate Cancer Cells and Tumor Samples.Cancers · 2022Article
- Embryologic and hormonal contributors to prostate cancer in transgender women.American journal of clinical and experimental urology · 2022Review
- Impact of genetically predicted atrial fibrillation on cancer risks: A large cardio-oncology Mendelian randomization study using UK biobank.Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine · 2022Article
- Topical Treatment of Human Skin and Cultured Keratinocytes with High-Dose Spironolactone Reduces XPB Expression and Induces Toxicity.JID innovations : skin science from molecules to population health · 2021Article
- Gender differences in the adverse events associated with cardiovascular drugs in a spontaneous reporting system in South Korea.International journal of clinical pharmacy · 2021Article
- The Use of Antihypertensive Drugs as Coadjuvant Therapy in Cancer.Frontiers in oncology · 2021Review
- Article
- Spironolactone use is associated with lower prostate cancer risk: a population-wide case-control study.Prostate cancer and prostatic diseases · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
aimsSpironolactone is widely used to treat heart failure, hypertension and liver disease with increased usage in recent years. Spironolactone has endocrine effects that could influence cancer risks and historical reports suggest possible links with increased risk of certain types of cancer. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of spironolactone exposure on cancer incidence.
methodsA pharmacoepidemiological propensity score-matched cohort study was performed to assess the effect of spironolactone exposure on cancer incidence. Cox proportional hazards models were used to analyse time to first diagnosis of each prespecified cancer and hazard ratios for spironolactone exposure are presented. The setting for the study was UK primary care using the Clinical Practice Research Datalink. The participants were 74 272 patients exposed to spironolactone between 1986 and 2013, matched 1:2 with unexposed controls. The prespecified primary outcomes were the first incidence of ovarian, endometrial, pancreatic, colorectal, prostate, renal cell, pharyngeal and thyroid cancers, and myelomonoblastic/-cytic leukaemias. Secondary outcomes were the remaining 27 types of cancer.
resultsThere was no evidence of an increased risk of any cancer associated with spironolactone use. Spironolactone use was associated with a significantly lower risk of prostate cancer (hazard ratio 0.69; 95% confidence interval 0.60-0.80, P < 0.001).
conclusionsIn this study, spironolactone use was associated with a lower incidence of prostate cancer, the most common cancer in men in the UK. The possible mechanisms and clinical implications merit further investigation.
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