New Research Indicates a Link between Drug Treatments and an Increased Risk of Bladder Cancer
Margaret R. Karagas is an epidemiologist from Dartmouth who led a team of investigators on a study concerned with the factors that can aid the development of cancer in people inhabiting the northern part of New England. The group of researchers discovered a very high risk to the bladders of the studied ill people that very under treatment with medication which suppressed the immune system.
The results of the research are based on a case-control investigation of people from New Hampshire. The outcomes and discoveries of the investigation were released in the British Journal of Cancer`s September edition. The leading author of the investigation is Karl Dietrich who is a student within Dartmouth Medical School. Accompanying him are professors: Alan Schned, John Heaney and Margaret Karagas who is also a professor in the Dartmouth Medical School in the family and community medicine department.
The research investigates the utilization of glucocorticoids on a long-term basis. The studied sample comprised 786 people suffering from bladder-cancer and 1,083 people who represented the control group. The amalgam of cytotoxic and glucocorticoids medications is recommended and prescribed by physicians in immunosuppressive treatments in order to aid ill people who underwent organ transplants to counteract the body`s rejection of the foreign organ. In addition, the glucocorticoids are also prescribed to people who suffer from asthma, rheumatoid arthritis and various other diseases.
Earlier investigations, some of which included Margaret Karagas as fellow researcher, reported links between these types of medication treatments and an increased predisposition to lymphoma and skin cancers.
As the new investigation presents the predisposition of developing bladder malignant tumors associated with the above mentioned therapies may be an indicator for the need of taking a closer look at patients who constantly take glucocorticoids as part of their treatments.
