Statin use reduces risk of developing advanced prostate cancer, study says

A 10-year study of more than 30,000 male health professionals found that long-term use of cholesterol-lowering statins appeared to cut in half their risk of developing advanced prostate cancer.

Although earlier, smaller studies have linked the use of statins to lower risks of prostate, breast and colon cancers, this is the first to tie risk reduction to prostate cancer while tracking the medication use before study participants got cancer.

Still, the researchers caution that the data are not conclusive enough to warrant prescribing the drug to reduce cancer risk alone. "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," said Elizabeth Platz, ScD, MPH, assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Kimmel Cancer Center in Baltimore.

The research was to be presented last month at the annual meeting of the American Assn. for Cancer Research in Anaheim, Calif.

In their study, the researchers tracked use of cholesterol-lowering drugs (including statins and nonstatins) and prostate cancer diagnosis among a group of 34,438 male health professionals. They found no association between the use of cholesterol-lowering drugs and whether men were diagnosed with early, curable forms of prostate cancer. But they did find that men who took cholesterol-lowering medications, as opposed to those not taking them, had half the risk of eventually developing advanced prostate cancers.

By the end of the study, more than 90% of men taking cholesterol-lowering drugs opted for statins, as opposed to other cholesterol-lowering drugs.

Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2005/05/09/hlbf0509.htm.