STATINS AND CANCER
DO CHOLESTEROL LOWERING DRUGS HELP PREVENT CANCER? ELIZABETH TRACEY REPORTS
Statin medications lower cholesterol and consequent risk of cardiovascular disease in many people, but they’ve also been eyed as answers to reducing the risk of many more diseases. Now a large study looking at long term use of statins shows they don’t help prevent cancers. Arthur Burnett, a prostate cancer expert at Johns Hopkins, describes the study.
BURNETT: It’s looking at long term use and various types of cancer, and drawing conclusions that overall, the cancer incidence was not associated, that is use of these cholesterol lowering drugs for five or more years was not associated with overall cancer incidence, was not associated with breast, colorectal, lung, bladder, renal cell or pancreatic cancer, although there did seem to be a possible association, lower risk with melanoma, endometrial cancer, and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. :32
So don’t take a statin medication to reduce your risk of cancer, Burnett concludes. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.
