The finding adds another twist to the complicated evidence linking cancer and painkillers, hinting that acetaminophen might be different from the rest.
Earlier work had shown that aspirin use might lower the odds of dying from colon cancer but increase the risk of bleeding ulcers. The picture has been less clear for blood, or haematologic, cancers, however.
"Prior to this study there was very little evidence that aspirin reduces your risk of hematological cancers," said Emily White of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, who worked on the new research.
There were some suggestions that acetaminophen might increase the risk of the cancers, on the other hand, but those were based on individual cases of blood cancer.
Studies of individual patients are not considered as strong as the new one, which tracked a large population of healthy people over time.
"We have the first prospective study," White told Reuters Health.
Still, she warned, there is no proof that acetaminophen causes cancer, and the new results need to be confirmed before they are used in any treatment decision. Earlier work had linked acetaminophen to asthma and eczema as well, but scientists still don't agree on whether the drug is the actual culprit or just an innocent bystander. The new study suffers from the same limitations, in that people who use lots of painkillers could be dealing with medical problems that set them up for cancer down the road. The scientists followed nearly 65,000 older men and women in Washington State. At the outset, they asked the participants about their use of painkillers over the past 10 years and made sure that no one had cancer (except skin cancer). Over some six years on average, 577 people - or less than one per cent - developed a cancer involving the blood cells. Examples of such cancers include lymphoma and myelodysplastic syndrome, or MDS. More than nine per cent of people who developed one of these cancers used high amounts of acetaminophen, compared to only five per cent of those who didn't get sick.
After accounting for things like age, arthritis and a family history of certain blood cancers, chronic acetaminophen users had nearly twice the risk of developing the disease.
"A person who is aged 50 or older has about a one-per cent risk in 10 years of getting one of these cancers," White said. "Our study suggests that if you use acetaminophen at least four times a week for at least four years, that would increase the risk to about two per cent."
No other painkillers - including aspirin and ibuprofen - were tied to the risk of blood cancers. Dr Raymond DuBois, a cancer prevention expert at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, said acetaminophen works very differently from other painkillers and so might be expected to have different effects on cancer. Still, "It was quite surprising to see that acetaminophen use increased the risk of blood cancers," DuBois, who was not involved in the study, told Reuters Health by email. McNeil Consumer Healthcare, the Johnson & Johnson subsidiary that sells Tylenol, did not respond to requests for comment. White said it is too soon to make any recommendations based on the new study, and that none of the painkillers is free of side effects.
"Long-term use of any over the counter drug might have adverse effects," she said. "You have to weigh the benefits against the risk of all the drugs."
Meanwhile, the chairman of Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), Oyo State branch, Mr Lekan Fasesin, has declared that there is no basis for paracetamol to increase the chances of a person developing any blood cancer if the drug is not abused, misused or taken in excess over a long period of time. Mr Fasesin said though previous observations had linked the use of parace-tamol to liver damage, the latest observation on para-cetamol use and blood cancers still needed to be proved. Dr Abu Okolo, a consultant pathologist, University College Hospital (UCH), expressed the need for the result to be taken with a lot of caution. Dr Okolo, remarking that paracetamol was safe for use as stipulated by its manufacturer, said the link between chronic use of paracetamol and blood cancers was still not absolute until corroborated by other researchers. According to him, "the finding of this study is meant to make researchers probe further into use of paracetamol."
The president, Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Dr Omede Idris, while explaining that the commonest organ in the body that paracetamol could affect was the liver, urged Nigerians to desist from taking medicines like paracetamol when tired.
According to him, rather than resort to the use of paracetamol when tired, Nigerians should take time out to rest.
"Sedentary lifestyle contributes to tiredness. Individuals should take time to do exercises. Initially, it might be tiring, but it helps to cope better, rather than resorting to the use of painkillers like paracetamol," he said.
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