A team of researchers said that ovarian cancer patients who use any specific kind of blood pressure drug often live longer as compared to other patients who do not take any kind of those medications.

Researchers in a first-of-its-kind study found that giving patients with epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) generic heart medications known as beta blockers can help boost their overall survival.

According to the researchers from University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Centre in US, the heart drugs block the effects of stress pathways involved in growth and spread of the tumor.

The findings of the study are based on a retrospective analysis of the medical records of approximately 1,425 women with ovarian cancer who were treated between 2000 and 2010.

The researchers, during their study, gave beta-blockers to about 269 patients during chemotherapy, 193 or 71.7% among those were given beta-1-adrenergic receptor selective agents (SBBs) and rest of the patients was given nonselective beta antagonists (NSBBs).

The researchers found that the median overall survival in patients who were receiving any beta-blocker was 47.8 months versus 42 months for nonusers. Median overall survival based on beta-blocker receptor selectivity was 94.9 months for those receiving NSBBs versus 38 months for those receiving SBBs.

They also found that among patients with hypertension, a longer median overall survival was observed among users of NSBBs compared with nonusers.

Principal investigator Anil Sood, professor at MD Anderson Cancer Centre, said, “Beta-blockers treat a variety of conditions, such as heart disease, high-blood pressure, glaucoma and migraines. They target a receptor protein in heart muscle that causes the heart to beat harder and faster when activated by stress hormones”.