EXCLUSIVE: It was billed as mothers little helper but “a cup of tea, a Bex and a good lie down” turned out to be a killer prescription and new research shows kidney cancers plunged after the pain killer was banned.
Bex, Vincents, APC and Veganin contained the addictive pain killer phenacetin. They were heavily advertised as pick me ups from the 1930s to the late seventies.
Some housewives took as many as three doses a day of the powder that could be dissolved in water or a cup of tea to help them get through the day.
When they were linked to high rates of kidney disease, the over the counter medications were banned in 1977.
In the mid-1970s kidney failure caused by the medicines was the reason 15-20 per cent of patients using dialysis needed the treatment and it also boosted the need for kidney transplants.
Now new research from Cancer Council NSW has mapped the effect the ban had on rates of a type of kidney cancer — renal pelvis cancer.
Cancer Council NSW, World Health Organisation research has found that incidence rates of renal pelvis cancer decreased by 52 per cent in women and 39 per cent in men between 1983-1987 and 2003-2007.
“The drastic drop in incidence of renal pelvis cancer, documented in this latest report, is another reminder of the importance of being able to monitor cancer rates after legislative changes are introduced to reduce risks among our population,” Cancer Council NSW research director Professor Freddy Sitas said.
There are around 1,000 cases of this type of kidney cancer diagnosed each year and the survival rate is not good.
Australian nephrologist Professor Priscilla Kincaid-Smith discovered the connection between the drug and kidney cancer when she noticed people presenting with neuropathological changes in the tubules around the pelvis, Professor Sitas said.
Women were most affected because the pain killers were heavily advertised in women’s magazines.
“You could get it over the counter and it was quite addictive,” Professor Sitas said.
The decline of renal pelvis cancer incidence in women was stronger in states where the use of products containing phenacetin was the most widespread, particularly in NSW and Queensland.
Rates for cancers in other unaffected parts of the kidney like the ureter have remained about the same over this period.
Other research has found that the proportion of patients needing renal dialysis as a result of pain killer use has fallen from 25 per cent in the seventies to just under 10 per cent in 1998.
“By documenting the direct impact of this legislation on Australian health we have brought some closure to a 40-year story,” Professor Sitas said..
“Thanks to almost complete cancer registration in Australia, we have been able to track the decline of this epidemic of kidney cancers that affected Australian women and men over almost 40 years.
“Without continued funding into cancer research, studies such as this would not be possible.”
Similar evidence is available following campaigns which publicised the link between lung cancer and smoking.
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