Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Meta-Analysis
. 2018 Jan;97(3):e9601.
doi: 10.1097/MD.0000000000009601.

Are phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitors associated with increased risk of melanoma?: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Shijian Feng  1 , Liang Zhou, Qinyu Liu, Qing He, Banghua Liao, Xin Wei, Hong Li, Kunjie Wang, Yuchun Zhu
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Are phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitors associated with increased risk of melanoma?: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Shijian Feng et al. Medicine (Baltimore). 2018 Jan.

Abstract

Phosphodiesterase type 5 (PDE5) inhibitors are recommended for patients with erectile dysfunction by American Urological Association and European Association Urology guidelines. However, recent researches have shown that PDE5 inhibitors may lead to increased melanoma risk. Thus, we aimed to explore whether PDE5 inhibitors are associated with increased melanoma risk based on published literatures.We conducted a systematic online search on PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, Chinese Biochemical Literature, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, and Chinese Science and Technology Periodical databases to identify the related studies. Odds ratios (ORs), risk ratios, and hazard ratios with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were extracted and calculated to assess the strength of associations between PDE5 inhibitors and melanoma risk. We also extracted the basal cell carcinoma (BCC) to validate the association in this study.We included 5 studies containing 100,932 participants in our systematic review and meta-analysis. The calculated results suggested positive results of PDE5 inhibitors on melanoma risk (OR: 1.13; 95%CI: 1.04-1.23). For localized and nonlocalized melanoma, the results were different (OR: 1.22; 95%CI: 1.04-1.43 for localized melanoma) (OR: 0.62; 95%CI: 0.39-0.98 for nonlocalized melanoma). It also showed that PDE5 inhibitors were associated with increased BCC risk (OR: 1.18; 95%CI: 1.11-1.27).The association between PDE5 inhibitors and melanoma might not be causal due to potential bias (patient selection, and so on) and limitations.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow diagram of study selection of meta-analysis.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Forest plot of PDE5 inhibitor and melanoma/localized melanoma/nonlocalized melanoma risk. PDE5 = phosphodiesterase type 5.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Forest plot of PDE5 inhibitor and basal cell carcinoma risk. PDE5 = phosphodiesterase type 5.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Palit V, Eardley I. An update on new oral PDE5 inhibitors for the treatment of erectile dysfunction. Nat Rev Urol 2010;7:603–9. - PubMed
    1. Khan AS, Sheikh Z, Khan S, et al. Viagra deafness—sensorineural hearing loss and phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitors. Laryngoscope 2011;121:1049–54. - PubMed
    1. Azzouni F, Abu samra K. Are phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitors associated with vision-threatening adverse events? A critical analysis and review of the literature. J Sex Med 2011;8:2894–903. - PubMed
    1. Arozarena I, Sanchez-Laorden B, Packer L, et al. Oncogenic BRAF induces melanoma cell invasion by downregulating the cGMP-specific phosphodiesterase PDE5A. Cancer Cell 2011;19:45–57. - PubMed
    1. Li WQ, Qureshi AA, Robinson KC, et al. Sildenafil use and increased risk of incident melanoma in US men: a prospective cohort study. JAMA Int Med 2014;174:964–70. - PMC - PubMed

MeSH terms

Substances