Did My Prescription Medication Give Me Skin Cancer?

I saw a headline not too long ago that I found unsettling. It wasn’t a recent article, as it was dated June 2018, but it was the first time I had seen it.

Can certain medication cause skin cancer?

The article mentioned a correlation between certain prescription medicine and an increase in skin cancer. When I read the article, things only got worse. I had taken that particular medicine for one year, although it’s now been almost a year since I last took it.

Hydrochlorothiazide and link to skin cancer

The medicine is hydrochlorothiazide, which is used to treat high blood pressure and is also used as a “water pill". According to the Skin Cancer Foundation, a study published in the Journal of the American Association of Dermatology reveals that researchers at the University of Southern Denmark discovered a connection between hydrochlorothiazide and squamous cell carcinoma. The researchers studied 80,000 skin cancer cases in Denmark and found that the longer a person took hydrochlorothiazide, the higher the risk was for that person to develop squamous cell carcinoma – seven times higher than someone who had not taken the medicine.

Not only can hydrochlorothiazide increase one’s chances for squamous cell cancer, but it has also been linked in the past to an increase of lip cancer. While I did not specifically research the lip cancer findings, they were mentioned in several of the articles I read while writing this article.

Talk with your doctor about the risks

Does this mean that if you take hydrochlorothiazide, you should stop taking it immediately? No! Do not stop taking your medicine without discussing it with your doctor. While the increased risks of skin cancer may be scary, you don’t want to put your health in jeopardy by stopping a prescribed medicine without first talking with your physician.

If you take hydrochlorothiazide, you should discuss with your doctor whether it could be increasing your chances for skin cancer, especially if you’ve previously had skin cancer and/or have other traits that could make you more prone to getting it: lighter-colored hair, lighter skin tone, blue or green eyes. There are alternatives to hydrochlorothiazide. The good news is that the University of Southern Denmark researchers found that none of the other antihypertensive drugs they examined seemed to increase a person’s risk for skin cancer.

My experience and concern

After reading this research, I am feeling thankful that I did not get my prescription renewed once it expired. I took hydrochlorothiazide as a water pill, but a change in my diet and an increase in water consumption negated my need to continue taking it. I am now a bit concerned that my then-doctor, even knowing I had a long history of skin cancer (almost 25 years), prescribed this medicine for me. I’m guessing she didn’t know about the reported connection.

Knowledge for the future

What I do know, though, is that I have had two squamous cell cancers since the time I started taking hydrochlorothiazide. This may or may not be a coincidence, as I did not take the medicine for an excessively long period of time. What I do know is this: if it is recommended in the future that I again take a “water pill", I will be able to now have an informed discussion with my doctor on the pros and cons of taking it.