Antihypertensive drugs use and the risk of prostate cancer: a meta-analysis of 21 observational studies

BACKGROUND: Due to the lack of strong evidence to identify the relationship between antihypertensive drugs use and the risk of prostate cancer, it was needed to do a systematic review to go into the subject. METHODS: We systematically searched PubMed, Web of Science and Embase to identify studies published, through May 2015. Two evaluators independently reviewed and selected articles involving the subject. We used the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) to assess the quality of the studies. All extracted results to evaluate the relationship between antihypertensive drugs usage and prostate cancer risk were pool-analysed using Stata 12.0 software. RESULTS: A total of 12 cohort and 9 case-control studies were ultimately included in our review. Most of the studies were evaluated to be of high quality. There was no significant relationship between angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEI) usage and the risk of prostate cancer (RR 1.07, 95% CI 0.96–1.20), according to the total pool-analysed. Use of angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) was not associated with the risk of prostate cancer (RR 1.09, 95% CI 0.97–1.21), while use of CCB may well increase prostate cancer risk based on the total pool-analysed (RR 1.08, 95% CI 1–1.16). Moreover, subgroup analysis suggested that use of CCB clearly increased prostate cancer risk (RR 1.10, 95% CI 1.04–1.16) in terms of case-control studies. There was also no significant relationship between use of diuretic (RR 1.09, 95% CI 0.95–1.25) or antiadrenergic agents (RR 1.22, 95% CI 0.76–1.96) and prostate cancer risk. CONCLUSIONS: There is no significant relationship between the use of antihypertensive drugs (ACEI, ARB, beta-blockers and diuretics) and prostate cancer risk, but CCB may well increase prostate cancer risk, according to existing observational studies. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12894-018-0318-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.