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Malignancy prevalence higher in primary aldosteronism than hypertension
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Patients with primary aldosteronism tend to have a higher prevalence of malignancies than patients with hypertension, according to recent study findings.
Researchers also found that aldosterone levels were correlated with the prevalence of malignancies.
Katharina Lang, MD, of the department of internal medicine, University Hospital of Würzburg in Germany, and colleagues evaluated data from the MEPHISTO study on 335 patients (median age, 57 years) with confirmed primary aldosteronism. Participants were matched with hypertensive controls (n = 335) from the Study of Health in Pomerania cohort.
Researchers sought to determine the prevalence of malignancies among the whole study population.
Overall, 119 participants with primary aldosteronism had a neoplasm at any time; 30 had multiple neoplasms.
A malignant tumor was diagnosed in 32 participants with primary aldosteronism; four had more than one. Compared with controls, the lifetime prevalence of malignancies was higher in participants with primary aldosteronism (P = .08). Among participants with primary aldosteronism, those with histories of malignancies had obesity (P = .16) and diabetes (P = .22) more often. Higher aldosterone levels at diagnosis of primary aldosteronism were found among participants with primary aldosteronism and a history of malignancies vs. those without malignancies (P = .009).
Renal cell carcinoma was diagnosed in five participants with primary aldosteronism compared with zero controls.
“Overall, the rate of malignancies did not differ significantly between groups,” the researchers wrote. “However, it was relatively high in the cohort of [primary aldosteronism] patients and interestingly significantly correlated to baseline aldosterone levels. The association of [renal cell carcinoma] and high aldosterone is supported by the findings of our study. Generally, our observations in [primary aldosteronism] patients, in which the [renin angiotensin system] is subsequently downregulated, suggest that not upregulation of the [renin angiotensin system] in general, as postulated by previous studies, but specifically the aldosterone excess might be a contributing factor in the pathogenesis of malignancies.” – by Amber Cox
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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