CHICAGO - Statins, those hard-working, cholesterol-fighting drugs, may also cut a person's risk of developing cancer by as much as 25 percent, US researchers said yesterday.
Veterans taking statin drugs had a 9.4 percent cancer incidence, compared with 13.2 percent for those not taking the drugs, the researchers reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
"Our findings support the hypothesis that statins may reduce the risk of cancer, in particular lung and colorectal cancers," said Dr. Wildon Farwell of the Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System, who led the study. "The risk reduction appeared to be around 25 percent."
Statins, the world's top-selling drugs, have been so effective at lowering low-density lipoprotein or LDL, the so-called bad cholesterol, that some doctors have joked should be added to the public water supply.
In labs, statins have been shown to slow the growth of cancer cells and have often been studied as a cancer fighter, with mixed results.
For their study, Farwell and colleagues looked at the health records of nearly 63,000 veterans in the Veterans Affairs New England Healthcare System between January 1997 and December 2005.
The veterans were divided into groups that had used either statin drugs - including
Farwell said they chose those groups because patients on both types of drugs have similar health risks and are likely to get about the same amount of access to the healthcare system.
After adjusting for age, prior cancer screenings, smoking, lung disease, and other conditions, the researchers found statin users had a reduced risk of all cancer types.
The researchers also looked at five of the most common types of cancers in the study group: prostate, lung, colorectal, bladder cancer, and melanoma.
"We found significant risk reduction for prostate, lung, and colorectal cancer," he said.
They also found that the higher the statin dose, the lower the incidence of cancer.
The study did not show why statins seemed to lower the risk of cancer. Also, participants were mostly white males, which could skew results.
Nevertheless, Farwell said, the findings are compelling enough to warrant further study.
