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Patients on Cholesterol-lowering Medications Have a Lower Incidence of Cancer?

January 10th, 2008 | by Timothy Kintzel, M.D. |

 

Drugs known collectively as “statins” are widely prescribed for lowering cholesterol (for example, Lipitor) and their benefits in reducing the risk of heart attacks is generally well accepted. However, a recent study conducted in veterans showed that patients on such drugs had a 25% lower incidence of cancer. This was a large study (about 26,000 patients with an average age of 66.5 years in both the control (no statins) and the experimental (statins) groups) conducted over 2 years. “After adjusting the data for the effects of age, weight, other diseases, smoking, cholesterol levels, and history of colon cancer screening tests, the risk developing any type of cancer was reduced by 26 percent in the statin group.” The cancers reduced included colorectal, lung, and prostate. Higher dosage levels also correlated with lower cancer risk. The investigators conclude that more studies need to be preformed to confirm this association but it is clearly an encouraging result.

J Natl Cancer Inst. 2008 Jan 8