Statins Reduce Breast, Lung and Prostate Cancer Risk
New research shows that the popular statin drugs may slash a person’s chance of developing breast, prostate, and lung tumors in half.
Three new studies show that “statins prevent healthy cells from transforming into cancerous cells,” says researcher Ruby Kochhar, MD, a medical oncologist at the Naval Medical Center in Portsmouth, Va. “There was a protective effect in every type of cancer studied.”
Statins are one of the most widely prescribed drugs used in the U.S. to treat high cholesterol. They include medications such as Lescol, Lipitor, Mevacor, Pravachol, and Zocor and work by blocking the body’s ability to produce cholesterol.
In the studies presented, researchers collected health information on more than 1.4 million men and women from the Veterans Administration. The studies all took into account risk factors for the type of cancer being studied, including age, smoking, and alcohol use. The results were :-
1. Breast cancer risk reduced by more than 51%
2. Lung cancer risk reduced by more than 48%
3. Prostate cancer risk reduced by more than 54%
Paul Bunn, MD, director of the University of Colorado Comprehensive Cancer Center in Denver and a past president of ASCO, says it makes sense that statins would have a broad anticancer effect. “The drugs work by blocking an enzyme involved in cholesterol production,” he says. “It’s a complicated process, but basically what happens is that the drugs [inactivate] a series of proteins involved in cholesterol production. And some of these same proteins are used by cells to promote tumor growth,”
While it’s still too soon to recommend that people at high risk for cancer start taking statins for their antitumor properties, the new research may give statins an edge over other cholesterol-lowering drugs, researchers say.
Reference - WebMD
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