Many people take medicines called benzodiazepines to help with anxiety, stress, or sleep problems.
These drugs are often prescribed to help people feel calmer or rest better at night. They are widely used around the world and are considered helpful when used carefully under medical guidance.
People with cancer also use these medicines quite often. Living with cancer can be very stressful. Patients may feel fear, worry, pain, and trouble sleeping. Because of this, doctors sometimes prescribe benzodiazepines to help them cope with these challenges.
However, a new study suggests that some of these drugs may affect how cancer develops, especially in people with pancreatic cancer. This finding has raised concerns and interest among researchers and doctors.
The study was led by Dr. Michael Feigin and his team at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center.
They focused on two commonly used benzodiazepines: lorazepam, often known by the brand name Ativan, and alprazolam, known as Xanax. The researchers wanted to understand whether these drugs had any effect on how pancreatic cancer grows and spreads.
Pancreatic cancer is one of the most serious and difficult cancers to treat. It often does not cause clear symptoms in the early stages, so many people are diagnosed when the disease is already advanced.
Because of this, treatment options are limited, and survival rates are lower compared to many other cancers. This makes it very important to study anything that could affect how the disease progresses.
The results of the study were unexpected. The researchers found that patients who took lorazepam seemed to have faster cancer growth and spread. In contrast, patients who took alprazolam appeared to have slower cancer progression. This difference between two drugs from the same group surprised the research team.
The study also showed how common these drugs are among cancer patients. Nearly one in three cancer patients at the hospital had been given benzodiazepines. Among patients with pancreatic cancer, the number was even higher, reaching about 40 percent. This means that many patients could be affected by these findings.
To better understand the reason behind these differences, another researcher on the team, Abigail Cornwell, explored how the drugs work inside the body. She discovered that lorazepam may activate a protein called GPR68. This protein is linked to increased inflammation within tumors.
Inflammation is a natural response in the body, but when it becomes long-lasting, it can cause harm. In cancer, inflammation can help tumors grow faster and become more aggressive. This may explain why patients taking lorazepam showed worse outcomes.
On the other hand, alprazolam did not activate this protein. Instead, it appeared to reduce levels of another molecule linked to inflammation, known as IL-6. Lower levels of this molecule may help slow down cancer growth, which could explain the different results seen in patients taking this drug.
Even though these findings are important, the researchers stress that more work is needed. Some parts of the study were done using animal models, such as mice, which do not always behave exactly like humans. Also, the doses of drugs were not the same for every patient, and some experiments used tumor models that are not identical to real human cancers.
Because of these limitations, doctors are not making immediate changes to how they prescribe these medicines. Dr. Feigin and his team are planning further studies, including clinical trials with real patients, to better understand these effects.
In the future, this research could help doctors make more informed decisions when choosing treatments for cancer patients. It may also lead to more personalized care, where each patient receives the most suitable medications based on their condition.
This study is a reminder that even common medicines can have unexpected effects, especially in people with serious illnesses. It shows how important it is to carefully study all aspects of treatment to give patients the best possible care.
If you care about cancer, please read studies that a low-carb diet could increase overall cancer risk, and vitamin D supplements could strongly reduce cancer death.
For more information about health, please see recent studies about how drinking milk affects the risks of heart disease and cancer and results showing higher intake of dairy foods linked to higher prostate cancer risk.
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