By David Liu, PHD

Monday Dec 17, 2012 (foodconsumer.org) -- Taking certain hypertension medications  may increase risk of breast cancer, according to a study in Cancer Causes and Control.

The study led by B.S. Saltzman from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle Washington and colleagues found use of hypertension medications called calcium channel blockers was associated with 1.6-fold increased risk of breast cancer.

The study was based on data from 3,201 women aged 65 years or older at baseline among whom 188 cases of breast cancer were diagnosed during a 12-year follow-up and 75 cases identified during a five-year follow-up.

Compared with women who did not use hypertension medications, women who had used calcium channel blockers within the past two years were at a 1.6-fold increased risk of breast cancer.

In particular, recent users of immediate-release calcium channel blockers were at a 2.4-fold increased risk of breast cancer.

Other hypertension medications were not found associated with breast cancer risk.

"While the observed association between immediate-release CCBs (calcium channel blockers) and breast cancer risk is based on a small sample size and needs to be interpreted cautiously, this result is consistent with others in the literature," the researchers concluded.