Benzodiazepine and CLL

[Sillysand]

Has there been any studies or research that shows Benzodiazepine (Ativan)

to be the cause of CLL ?

[AussieNeil Partner Administrator]

There's no mention of an increased risk for blood, leukemia, or lymphoma cancer in this large Taiwanese study from 2015: Is Long-term Use of Benzodiazepine a Risk for Cancer? ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

That paper references a much older (1995) paper, Relation of benzodiazepine use to the risk of selected cancers: breast, large bowel, malignant melanoma, lung, endometrium, ovary, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, testis, Hodgkin's disease, thyroid, and liver (CLL is the most commonly diagnosed adult non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.) That paper pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/777... concluded "The similarity of results derived with cancer and noncancer controls suggests that benzodiazepines do not influence the risk of cancer as a whole."

Neil

[Sillysand in reply to AussieNeil]

Hi Neil Something caught my attention a couple of days ago , so I type in "Is Ativan linked to CA". What came up was, Ativan users have had a 15% higher risk to develop cancer. After having hot flashes for 8 + years , Ativan was suggested. 1 mg at night works like a charm. And as former Lic nurse I know its not meant for long term. When your totally exhausted day after day from Hf's you get desperate for relief. So now I'm just a bit rattled wondering if I caused my CLL by taking Ativan. When the eye infection report 2 months ago came back " Unknown Etiology " It made me think of CLL and how medicine and science still needs to figure out how and why we got it. "Unknown Etiology" drives me nuts. In the mean time I will wean myself off Ativan. Thank you for the articles. And yes,, I, we,, are all blessed to have treatments that are now available to us we the time comes . As always Neil . Thank YOU ! 🙏

[AussieNeil Partner Administrator in reply to Sillysand]

With respect to "Ativan users have had a 15% higher risk to develop cancer.", remember to always look at the absolute, not relative risk. If you have a 1 in 10 million risk chance of developing cancer without Ativan, the absolute risk with Ativan will be 1 in 8.5 million - not worth losing sleep over. However, if the risk without Ativan is 1 in 10, then perhaps the extra 15% might be more of a concern.

Neil

[Sillysand]

Ok , Thank you Neil

Lorna