Abstract
BACKGROUND: Preclinical evidence suggests a link between the renin-angiotensin system and oncogenesis. We aimed to explore the impact of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEi) and angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARB) in head and neck cancer (HNC). METHODS: Over 5000 patients were identified from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results-Medicare linked dataset and categorized according to ACEi and ARB and diagnoses of chronic kidney disease (CKD) or hypertension (HTN). Overall survival (OS) and cancer-specific survival (CSS) were compared using Cox multivariable regression (MVA), expressed as hazard ratios (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (95%CI). RESULTS: No significant MVA associations for OS or CSS were found for ACEi. Compared to patients with CKD/HTN taking ARB, those with CKD/HTN not taking ARB experienced worse OS (HR 1.28, 95%CI 1.09-1.51, p = 0.003) and CSS (HR 1.23, 95%CI 1.00-1.50, p = 0.050). CONCLUSIONS: ARB usage is associated with improved OS and CSS among HNC patients with CKD or HTN.