Removal of Bextra and Vioxx from stores raises questions about other painkillers

A recent study shows that, though taking these over the counter medications can reduce smokers' chances of mouth cancer by half, that benefit is offset by an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Despite the relatively small size of the study (only 908 people participated), doctors are still concerned by adverse reactions to over the counter painkillers.

• Smokers in Norway who took such drugs for at least six months had twice the risk of dying of a heart attack, stroke or other heart-related problem.
• The findings came from a study of whether these pain relievers could prevent oral cancer.
• The drugs did, in fact, cut the risk of developing oral cancer in half, but the deaths that were prevented were offset by the increased risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, according to the study, reported Monday at an American Association for Cancer Research conference in Anaheim.
• The study was relatively small --- 908 people --- and involved people prone to heart problems and cancer because they smoked.
• But specialists said it supports the Food and Drug Administration's recent decision to warn about long-term use of all such painkillers except aspirin.
• The findings add to the suspicion that the heart risk extends beyond the so-called cox-2 drugs --- Bextra, Vioxx and Celebrex --- to the larger family of medications known as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAIDs, which include naproxen, ibuprofen and virtually all other over-the-counter pain relievers except acetaminophen or Tylenol.
• "To the best of our knowledge, these are the first data to support putting a box warning on NSAIDs, not just cox-2s," said Dr. Andrew Dannenberg, a Cornell University scientist who helped do the Norway study.
• In other news at the conference, a large study suggested that cholesterol-lowering statin drugs might help prevent the most serious types of prostate cancer --- those that kill or spread throughout the body.
• Men who took statins had half the risk of advanced prostate cancer as men who did not take such drugs, reported Elizabeth Platz of Johns Hopkins University, who did the study with Harvard University researchers and the National Cancer Institute.