Statins may reduce the risk of developing more than 20 types of cancer, as well as cutting deaths from heart disease, a study shows.
The risk of developing major cancers, including breast, prostate and cervical cancer, is halved in patients taking cholesterol-lowering pills.
Researchers hailed the discovery as a major breakthrough in the fight against the scourge of cancer.
In the study, academics in China used a British database containing up to 15 years of health information on nearly 400,000 patients to reach their groundbreaking conclusions.
Researchers say lipid-lowering drugs, primarily statins, may have several anti-cancer effects, including reducing inflammation and preventing malignant cells from growing and multiplying. “We found that lipid-lowering drugs, particularly statins, are associated with a lower risk of 21 types of cancer,” the researchers say.
Statins may reduce the risk of developing more than 20 types of cancer, as well as deaths from heart disease, according to a study (file image)
It could be a promising strategy to consider repurposing these drugs for cancer prevention.
‘Lipid-lowering drugs protect against cancer incidence, suggesting possible cancer-preventive effects in the general population.’
But experts insist more research is needed following the study, which appeared in the journal iScience.
The researchers used data from the UK Biobank, which has been collecting health and other information on 500,000 people since 2006.
The team identified 383,784 people for the study, including 114,451 new users of lipid-lowering drugs.
Information on men and women, including cancer diagnoses and the date patients were prescribed lipid-lowering drugs, was tracked for an average of 12.8 years.
The results show that new statin users had a lower risk of leukemia, lymphoma, multiple myeloma, melanoma, prostate, ovarian, uterine, cervical, breast, lung, liver, esophageal, stomach, intestinal, colorectal, skin, bladder, kidney, thyroid, pancreatic and brain cancers, with risk reductions for individual cancers ranging from 38 to 66 percent.
The risk of major cancers, including breast, prostate and cervical cancers, is halved in patients taking cholesterol-lowering pills (file image)
The use of lipid-lowering drugs was also associated with a 70 percent reduction in the risk of dying from cancer over a period of time, compared with those who did not take them. Researchers from Shandong University Hospital and other centers in China said: “Lipid-lowering drugs may have a preventive effect on cancer by mitigating chronic inflammation, a crucial factor in the development of many malignancies.”
Around eight million adults in the UK take lipid-lowering drugs such as statins. Statins, which were first used in the UK in the 1980s, reduce fatty deposits in the arteries and have been a game-changer in the fight against cardiovascular disease.
Previous research on statins and individual cancers has been mixed, with some showing a positive effect and some showing a negative effect.
The new study is observational, and while the team showed links between statins and a lower risk of cancer, it was not designed to establish whether the medication was responsible for the reduction.
Jayant Vaidya, professor of surgery and oncology at University College London, said: “Further research is needed. The lower risk was independent of duration of statin use, so the association may not be causal.
‘However, the cardiovascular benefits are reason enough to discuss its use jointly between doctors and patients.’