Cancer drugs may offer a new way to control high blood pressure: Study

Drugs designed to halt cancer growth may offer a new way to control high blood pressure, researchers say.

The finding by researchers at the Georgetown University in the US could offer a real advance in hypertension treatment because although a number of high blood pressure drugs are now available, they work by different mechanisms that are not suited for all patients.

The study, published in the journal Hypertension, found that fibroblast growth factors, or FGFs, involved in increasing blood vessel growth so that cancer can grow, also have a systemic effect on blood pressure.

The researchers suggest that just as oncologists use FGF inhibitors to control cancer, clinicians may be able to use FGF inhibitors to regulate blood pressure and control disease associated with hypertension.

"It's rare that a single class of drugs can be used for such different conditions, but that is what our study strongly suggests," said Anton Wellstein, from the Georgetown University.