High blood pressure and 17-year cancer mortality in the Western Electric Health Study.

A positive association between elevated blood pressure and risk of death from cancer has been observed in four long-term prospective studies. In the Western Electric Health Study, the relationship was specific to death from renal cell carcinomas and epidermoid cancers of the head and neck. The relationship with epidermoid head and neck cancer was indirect, resulting from the effects of alcohol consumption on both blood pressure and on risk of this cancer. The relationship with kidney cancer was probably due to effects of abnormal renal cell activity. The association between blood pressure and cancer mortality at other sites was not significant.