Abstract

Malignant tumours are the second main cause of disease related mortality after cardiovascular diseases both in Europe and Estonia. In epidemiologic studies, hypertension has been established as an independent risk factor for cancer incidence. The strongest evidence links hypertension to incidence of kidney cancer. It has been shown that comorbidites such as hypertension have a notable impact on the treatment efficacy and survival of cancer patients. Also, some anti-cancer drugs can cause hypertension as a treatment related sideeffect. Treatment induced hypertension is mostly seen in the case of new targeted agents, such as angiogenesis inhibitors. Although there exist no specific differences in the therapeutic approach to hyprtension treatment in cancer patients, there is some evidence that renin angiotensin system inhibitors may be more attributable to the hypertension induced by angiogenesis inhibitors.