Angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) reduce the risk of lung cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) are the most commonly used blood pressure-lowering drugs in the world. However, the preventive value of ARBs on lung cancer is still controversial. Therefore, it was necessary for us to perform a meta-analysis to evaluate the value of ARBs on lung cancer risk. We searched the PubMed database as well as the Web of Science database. The overall effect was measured by odds ratio (OR) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CI). The significance of the pooled ORs was determined by the Z test with a P value less than 0.05 considering statistically significant. In this meta-analysis, we found ARBs could decrease the lung cancer risk (OR= 0.81, 95% CI 0.69-0.54). The stability of the results was tested by sensitivity analysis. The result was not a significant change, suggesting that the result of our meta-analysis was stable. In conclusion, our meta-analysis demonstrated that ARBs was significantly associated with lower lung cancer.