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Cholesterol-lowering drugs cleared of breast cancer risk
Source: (cancerfacts.com)
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
CHICAGO – Oct. 25, 2005 – Cholesterol-lowering drugs apparently have no impact on breast cancer risk according to a new study.
That's welcome news to women left with uncertainty by recent research showing conflicting results. On the one hand some studies suggested that widely used statin drugs, like Lipitor,® Pravachol,® and Zocor.® have the potential to increase the risk of breast cancer, while other studies have suggested these drugs provide a protective effect, boosting the ability of chemotherapy to shrink tumors.
This newest study should ease some of the anxiety as the study data are taken from one of the largest women's health studies ever undertaken, the Harvard Nurse's Health Study, involving nearly 80,000 women.
Led by Dr. Heather Eliassen, of the Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Mass., the research team analyzed the information from 79,994 questionnaires sent to the women between 1988 and 2000. The study results appear in the Oct. 24 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.
"In summary, the results of this study suggest that the beneficial effect of statins on breast cancer observed in experimental studies may not be applicable to humans," the authors wrote. "We also found no associations of general lipid-lowering drugs and serum cholesterol levels with breast cancer risk. Further study is warranted to evaluate the associations of longer durations of statin use and specific types of statins with breast cancer risk."
The researchers analyzed serum cholesterol levels and use of statins and lipid-lowering drugs for 79,994 women aged 42 to 69 years who were free of cancer and followed for up to 12 years through questionnaires the women filled out an returned twice a year. The investigators then compared the information from the questionnaires to the women who were diagnosed with breast cancer during the study period, using medical records to confirm cancer reports.
Overall, they found 3,177 cases of invasive breast cancer, with 1,727 among statin users compared to 1,450 among non-statin users. After adjusting for differences in the two groups for other factors that influence breast cancer risk, they found that there was no statistical difference in the breast cancer risk of the two groups.
Neither current nor long-term use of statins nor other lipid-lowering drugs were associated with breast cancer risk, the researchers stated. Nor was there any link between reported total serum cholesterol levels and breast cancer risk in either pre-menopausal or post-menopausal women.
"Overall, these data suggest that serum cholesterol levels and the use of lipid-lowering drugs in general and of statins in particular are not substantially associated with breast cancer risk," the researchers concluded.
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