Study: Reduced Cancer Risk Seen with Statin Use

[Barb73]

http://www.cancerpage.com/news/article.asp?id=12220

ARTICLE:

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High-dose lipophilic statin use is associated with a significant reduction in the incidence of cancer, according to results of a study published in the April issue of the American Journal of Medicine.

Antitumorigenic effects for statins have been proposed, "although original reports had actually suggested the potential opposite, procarcinogenic effects of statins," Dr. Louise Pilote, of McGill University, Montreal, Canada, and colleague write. "Despite massive amounts of data, the issue remains inconclusive."

In a retrospective observational study, the researchers examined the association between lipophilic statin use and cancer occurrence in over 30,000 patients discharged from the hospital after admission for acute MI in the province of Quebec. The team linked the Quebec hospital discharge summary database to the drugs claims database.

The researchers defined high-dose statin use as a filled prescription, within 3 days after hospital discharge, at or above the statin-specific target dose, for any of the lipophilic statin medications (atorvastatin, simvastatin, lovastatin, or fluvastatin). Low-dose statin use was defined as a filled prescription, within 3 days after discharge, below the statin-specific target dose.

Overall, 1099 subjects were hospitalized with a cancer diagnosis during follow-up for up to 7 years.

The overall crude incidence rates of hospitalizations for cancer were 13.9, 17.2, and 20.6 per 1000 person-years among statin high-dose users, low-dose users, and non-users, respectively. The adjusted hazard ratios for high-dose statin use and low-dose statin use were 0.75 and 0.89 versus non-use, respectively.

"This is the first study to suggest a dose-response effect of lipophilic statins on cancer occurrence," Dr. Pilote's team notes. "Future studies should provide additional evidence allowing the assessment of long-term effects of statins on cancer risk."

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(CancerPage, Reuters, May 15, 2008)

Disclaimer:

The information contained in these articles may or may not be in agreement with my own opinions. They are not posted as medical advice of any kind.

[RandyW]

THis has been ongoing since at least 2004 that I am aware of so far.....

[CaroleHammett]

I continue to be illiterate when it comes to scienctific jargon. Yo, Greg! I needs ya, buddy!

Carole

[RandyW]

In a nutshell If you take statins such as these;

brand generic

Lescol fluvastatin Na

Lipitor atorvastatin Ca

Mevacor lovastatin

Pravachol pravastatin Na

Zocor simvastatin

They reduce the chances of Lung cancer. This has been ongoing for several years now. tehse drugs are common for high cholestorol.

Use of statins for more than 6 months reduced the risk for lung cancer by 55%, according to the results of a case-control study published in the May issue of Chest.

"Statins are commonly used cholesterol-lowering agents that are noted to suppress tumor cell growth in several in vitro and animal models," write Vikas Khurana, MD, from the Overton Brooks VA Medical Center at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in Shreveport, and colleagues. "To date, there is no effective chemopreventive agent identified as a means to reduce the incidence of lung cancer."

[Barb73]

Hi Randy,

"RandyW"]THis has been ongoing since at least 2004 that I am aware of so far.....

Yes, studies such as this have been going on, or ones similar to it, for years. I have been following this subject matter for four years, at least in various news items.

This is the part in this particular item (a caveat) that jumped out at me:

. . . . . . . . .

Antitumorigenic effects for statins have been proposed, "although original reports had actually suggested the potential opposite, procarcinogenic effects of statins," Dr. Louise Pilote, of McGill University, Montreal, Canada, and colleague write. "Despite massive amounts of data, the issue remains inconclusive."

. . . . . . . . .

Barbara

[CaroleHammett]

They reduce the chances of Lung cancer.

Thanks, Randy. Is there any evidence that they slow down or stop progression post-diagnosis?

Carole

[RandyW]

This is from the ASCO 2007 meeting;

A. S. Hanbali, D. Wang, M. Jankowski, E. Urbaez, A. Syed and S. Farhan

Henry Ford Hosp, Detroit, MI; Karmanos Cancer Institute, Detroit, MI

7638

Background: Hypercholesterolemia is one of the most common morbidities in United States. Statins have been proven as effective cholesterol-lowering agents and have been widely used in this country. They have been reported reducing the incidence and risk of various cancer types. However, the impact of using statins on the survival of 407 patients with diagnosed non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) was initially reported (Wang, et al. Abstract #7149, ASCO Meeting 2006). Methods: 1,233 patients with diagnosed non-small cell lung cancer were identified from the Tumor Registry at Henry Ford Health System between January 1999 and December 2004. The data from 1,206 patients were extracted from their available electronic medical records. Statistical analyses were performed and stratified for statin users versus non statin users. Results: Data from 1,205 eligible patients were included in this updated report. There were 391 patients with hypercholesterolemia, 250 of them were statin users at the time of their non-small cell lung cancer diagnosis. Average age was 68 (range 46–90) years for statin users and 65.9 (range 29–94) years for non statin users.

Overall median survival of 1,205 subjects was 9.85 months. After stratifying for statin use, the median survival of statin users was 13.9 (95% C.I. 9.9 - 17.4) months while the median survival of non statin users was 9.6 (95% C.I. 8.1 - 10.4) months, with a P value of 0.0001. After having several prognostic variables (age, stage, co-morbids, other cancers, performance status, anti-cancer therapies, and serum albumin, etc.) adjusted, statin use still demonstrated protection from death with a hazard ratio of 0.74 (95% C.I. 0.59 - 0.95, P=0.017).

Conclusion: The trend of survival benefit from NSCLC among statin users was shown in our previous report and it has maintained with further enhanced statistical significance in this update. Though statin use will unlikely become an independent anti-cancer regimen by itself, the choice of continuation of statin among NSCLC patients may still provide survival benefit to this population. The favorable impact of statin use on NSCLC patients is intriguing; a prospective study of co-morbidity management with statins in patients with non-small cell lung cancer is warranted.

No significant financial relationships to disclose.

Abstract presentation from the 2007 ASCO Annual Meeting

[CaroleHammett]

Thanks, Randy

My 2006 cholesterol was somewhat high, but not enough for meds (and I think(?) I've since been controlling it with diet, and given my 01/07 dx, quite frankly, I haven't bothered checking it again.

Maybe, however, I should call and make lab appt. tomorrow just for the heck of it?

Carole