Does Beta-blocker Therapy Improve the Survival of Patients with Metastatic Non-small Cell Lung Cancer?

Aim: To determine whether beta-blockers (BBs) improve the overall survival (OS) of patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Materials and Methods: The medical charts of 107 patients with metastatic NSCLC were retrospectively assessed. Thirty-five patients (BB group) using BBs during chemotherapy (CT) were compared with 72 controls [control=(C) group] who did not use BBs following the diagnosis of NSCLC. The histological tumor subtype, performance status (ECOG), age, gender, smoking status, comorbidities, other medications and chemotherapeutics that were received in any line of treatment were recorded. We compared the overall survival (OS) of the patients in the BB and C groups. Results: The mean age of the patients was 61 years (range 42-81 years) and all patients were administered CT. The BB group was more likely to have HT and IHD and was more likely to use RAS blockers (p<0.01 for all) compared with the C group, as expected. The mean follow-up time was 17.8 months (range 1-102 months) for the entire group. The most commonly prescribed BB agent was metoprolol (80% of cases). At the time of the analysis, 74 (69%) of all patients had died. In the univariate analysis the median overall survival (OS) was 19.25 (+/- 2.87) months (95% CI: 13.62-24.88) in the BB group and 13.20 (+/- 2.37) months (95% CI: 8.55-17.85) in the C group (p=0.017). However, the benefit of BBs on survival disappeared in the multivariate analysis. Conclusions: The use of BBs during CT may be associated with an improved OS for patients with metastatic NSCLC.