Last updated at 3:15 AM on 10th October 2011
Pills costing just 5p a day could save the lives of thousands of patients with the deadliest form of skin cancer, researchers claim.
Beta blockers have been shown to reduce the death rate by 13 per cent by preventing tumours spreading to other organs.
The drugs are commonly handed out to hundreds of thousands to treat high blood pressure and heart problems.
But an international team of scientists has found that they can also help those with malignant melanoma, giving them a greater chance of survival.
Researchers from Ohio State University in the U.S. and Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark looked at the records of 4,000 people with the condition.
The group included 372 patients who were also being prescribed beta blockers for high blood pressure or heart problems.
The scientists found that those who had been taking the drugs for at least three months before they were diagnosed with cancer were 13 per cent less likely to die within five years.
Beta blockers have been used to treat high blood pressure and heart conditions, including irregular heartbeats and angina, since the Sixties.
They slow the patient’s heartbeat by preventing the release of certain stress hormones, which means the heart does not have to pump so hard and blood pressure comes down.
Now experts think they may also prevent cancer from spreading by stopping the growth of blood vessels that supply tumours.
However, they stress that there is no evidence that the pills prevent skin cancer. Writing in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers &
Prevention, the researchers concluded: ‘Our data did not reveal any impact of beta-blocker use on the incidence of cancer.
At fault? The rising popularity of sunbeds has been blamed for an increase in cases of skin cancer
‘But the drugs may have unrecognised potential as a therapeutic intervention for melanoma and possibly other forms of cancer.’
Rates of malignant melanoma have doubled in the past decade. There are more than 10,000 new cases every year, and 2,000 deaths.
The disease’s rise has been partly attributed to holidaymakers spending too much time in the sun.The soaring popularity of sunbeds has also been blamed.
Skin cancer tumours, which first manifest themselves as a small mole on the skin, can be surgically removed if caught early enough.
However, once they have spread to other parts of the body – such as the lungs, liver, bones and brain – the disease is usually terminal.
Scientists at Nottingham University, funded by the charity Cancer Research UK, are currently investigating the extent to which beta blockers can halt the spread of breast cancer.
Early findings published last year found that there was a 71 per cent reduction in deaths among women taking the drugs.
In June, a larger international study suggested that one beta blocker, propranolol, cut the chance of death by as much as 81 per cent.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2047110/Beta-blockers-help-stop-skin-cancer-spreading-organs.html
