Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Original Article
  • Published:

Hypertension is associated with a high risk of cancer

Abstract

To investigate the possible relationship between hypertension and cancer, a retrospective analysis was carried out using a database including 1225 cases, of which 552 were hypertensives and 673 normotensives. Seventy cases of cancers with different origins were found during a 17-year follow-up. Odds ratio (OR) for occurrence of cancer was calculated. It was shown that an age over 40 years, male sex, alcohol-taking, systolic and diastolic blood pressures (SBP/DBP) were the five risk factors for the occurrence of cancers, while occupation, smoking, body mass index, left ventricular hypertrophy, and antihypertensive medication had no effect on cancer incidence. Hypertensives were at a high risk of overall cancer incidence with OR 2.2 (P < 0.01). after stratification of age, or for hypertensives aged 40–49 years old with sbp 140 mm hg or dbp 90mm hg was 3.18 and 2.98 (P < 0.01 respectively). the or of cancer for non-alcohol taking male hypertensives with sbp 140 mm hg or dbp 90 mm hg were 3.6 (95%ci 1.37–9.68, P = 0.003) and 5.67 (95%CI 2.01–16.75, P < 0.001), 7.55 (95%ci 2.10–33.19, P < 0.001) and 7.80 (95%ci 2.14–33.79, P < 0.001) for non-alcohol taking female hypertensives with sbp 140 mm hg or dbp 90 mm hg. after adjustment of age, sex and alcohol taking, the or of the cancer incidence was 3.45 (95%ci 1.30–9.01, P < 0.01) for male and 5.0 (95%ci 1.56–16.67, P < 0.01) for female hypertensives aged 40–49 years. multiple logistic regression analysis shows that age over 40 years, male sex, alcohol-taking, and dbp were the four independent risk factors for cancers. it is concluded that hypertension is associated with a high risk of cancer.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Similar content being viewed by others

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Xie, L., Wu, K., Xu, N. et al. Hypertension is associated with a high risk of cancer. J Hum Hypertens 13, 295–301 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.jhh.1000805

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.jhh.1000805

Keywords

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links