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Statins help cut risk for advanced prostate cancer
Source: (cancerfacts.com)
Monday, April 18, 2005
ANAHEIM, Calif. – April 18, 2005 – The longer men take cholesterol-lowering drugs such as statins, the less likely they are to develop advanced prostate cancer according to a new study.
In one of the largest studies to date looking at statins and cancer risk, results showed the men taking statin drugs cut their risk of advanced prostate cancer in half.
The results come from a 10-year study of more than 30,000 health professionals conducted by Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Harvard University. Led by Dr. Elizabeth Platz, assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Kimmel Cancer Center, the researchers presented the findings today at the Annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR).
"We found that statin-takers cut their risk for advanced disease in half," Platz said in a prepared statement. "Additional large studies may help confirm these results, but we also have some very important questions lingering as to which biochemical processes may link statins and reduced prostate cancer development. Instead of preventing cancer, statins might work by stalling a tumor already in the prostate, helping to ensure that it doesn't get worse."
Statins are the world's best-selling drugs, taken by millions to reduce the risk of heart attack by lowering cholesterol levels. Brand names include Pravachol®, Zocor® and Lipitor®.
In their study, the researchers tracked use of cholesterol-lowering drugs (including statins and non-statins) and prostate cancer diagnosis among a group of 34,438 male health professionals, including dentists and veterinarians.
They found no association between use of cholesterol-lowering drugs and whether or not men were diagnosed with early, curable forms of prostate cancer. But they did find that men who took cholesterol-lowering medications had half the risk of eventually developing advanced prostate cancers compared to men who did not take them.
Although earlier, smaller studies have linked the use of statins to a lower risk of prostate and other cancers, such as breast and colon, this is the first to tie risk reduction to prostate cancer stage while tracking the medication use before study participants got cancer.
Still, the researchers caution that data are not conclusive enough to warrant prescribing the drug to reduce cancer risk alone because many questions still linger, such as how they might contribute to delaying the cancer process more effectively than non-statins.
Platz noted that "when cholesterol-lowering drugs first came onto the market almost 20 years ago, there was even concern that they might increase the risk of cancer. Now, we are seeing more evidence that the opposite may be the case, but more research needs to be done."
By the end of the study, more than 90 percent of men taking cholesterol-lowering drugs opted for statins, as opposed to other cholesterol-lowering drugs.
"Since most of these study participants were taking statins during the time that we saw the highest levels of risk-reduction, we believe that statins more than any of the other cholesterol-lowering drugs may have the biggest risk-reduction effects, but more studies are necessary to validate this," says Platz.
Statins lower cholesterol by blocking an enzyme needed by the liver to produce cholesterol. How the drugs might act to reduce prostate cancer are unknown, however, there are clues to suggest statins might affect testosterone production, or cell signaling networks involved in stimulating cell division. Another theory suggests that the drugs may play a role in changing prostate cancer cell membranes, which are rich in cholesterol.
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