So, Here I am .....

[RandyW]

Doing a mini physical for the insurance company at work and the Paramedic and I were discussing Lipitor because I take it for my blood pressure and I told her about the benefits of Lipitor statins and Lung cancer. and she said she had not heard of that so ........................

Cholesterol Drugs Fight Lung Cancer

Study: Smokers Taking Statin Drugs Get 55% Less Lung Cancer

By Daniel J. DeNoon

WebMD Health News

Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

May 7, 2007 -- People who take cholesterol-lowering statin drugs for more than six months -- even smokers -- cut their lung cancer risk by 55%, a Veterans Administration study suggests.

Taking the drugs for four or more years cut lung cancer risk by 77%.

"The data obtained after six months of statin use clearly shows a decreasing risk for lung cancer with increasing duration of statin use," report Vikas Khurana, MD, of the Overton Brooks VA Medical Center in Shreveport, La., and colleagues.

The findings, first reported in 2005, come from an analysis of nearly half a million patient records collected from 1998 to 2004 in eight southern states. The updated report appears in the May issue of the journal Chest.

Examples of statins include Zocor, Lipitor, Pravachol, Crestor, Lescol, and Mevacor. This isn't the first study to suggest that these drugs help prevent cancer. Studies have suggested that statins may cut a person's risk of many cancers, including breast cancer, colon cancer, prostate cancer, brain cancer, kidney cancer, and leukemia, the researchers note.

Though this research strongly suggests that the statin drugs help prevent cancer, they do not prove that taking one of these drugs will reduce a person's cancer risk. Even so, the lung cancer data are compelling.

"The protective effect of statin [use] was seen across different age and racial groups and was irrespective of the presence of diabetes, smoking, or alcohol use," Khurana and colleagues note.

While statin drugs reduced lung cancer risk, they did not eliminate it. Of the 7,280 patients who got lung cancer, 1,994 -- 27.4% -- were taking statins.

"Due to the high prevalence of statin use and the grave prognosis of lung cancer, even a modest risk reduction means a considerable effect on public health," Khurana and colleagues suggest.

[ts]

So interesting. I was on Lipitor for years, paying out of pocket. About December 2007, I got prescription coverage and insurance wouldn't pay for it. Tried two other statin drugs over the next 6 months - had reactions to both, finally got an okay to go back to Lipitor in the fall, same time as my lc dx. I haven't filled it (expensive, even with insurance, and I was tired of taking meds the past 8 months.)

Did Lipitor prevent lung cancer from forming for years? I was on statin drugs right up to my finding, except for the last couple of weeks. So much for my 77% risk reduction. Yup, I'm part of that 27% who still got lc. Funny math.

My doc did tell me that Lipitor had shown some benefits for lowering the risk of lung cancer when I asked last fall. Guess I might have to renew that prescription one of these days.

[Ellen in PA]

ts wrote:

"Did Lipitor prevent lung cancer from forming for years? I was on statin drugs right up to my finding, except for the last couple of weeks. So much for my 77% risk reduction. Yup, I'm part of that 27% who still got lc. Funny math."

You and me both. I was on Zocor and then Lipitor from my heart attack in August 2001 until my lc dx in December 2007. Funny math indeed. But my husband has been on Zocor since the 1990s so maybe it's working for him.

Ellen