Study shows statins may slash risk of developing more than 20 cancers

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Study shows statins may slash risk of developing more than 20 cancers

Statins may slash the risk of developing more than 20 cancers, as well as cutting deaths from heart ********, a study shows.

The risk of major cancers, including *******, prostate and cervical, is halved in patients taking the cholestoral-lowering pills.

Researchers hailed the finding as an important breakthrough in combating the scourge of *******.

In the study, academics in China used a British database containing up to 15 years of health information on nearly 400,000 patients to arrive at their groundbreaking conclusions.

They say lipid [fatty compound] lowering drugs – mainly statins –may have several anti-******* effects, including reducing inflammation and preventing malignant cells from growing and multiplying.

The researchers said: “We found that lipid-lowering drugs, particularly statins, were associated with decreased risk of 21 types of cancers.

“It may be a promising strategy to consider repurposing these drugs for ******* prevention.

“Lipid-lowering drugs protect from ******* incidence, suggesting the possible ******* prevention effects in the general population.”

But experts insist further investigation is needed following the study, which appeared in the journal iScience.

The researchers used data from the *** 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 the men and women, including any ******* diagnosis and the date when patients were prescribed lipid-lowering drugs, was tracked for an average of 12.8 years.

The results show that new users of statins had a lower risk of leukaemia, lymphoma, multiple myeloma, melanoma, prostate, ovarian, *******, cervical, *******, lung, liver, oesophagus, gastric, intestinal, colorectal, skin, bladder, kidney, thyroid, pancreatic and brain cancers, with risk reductions for individual cancers ranging from 38 to 66 per cent.

Using lipid-lowering drugs was also associated with a 70 per cent reduced risk of dying from ******* in a time frame, compared to non-users.

The researchers from Shandong University Hospital and other centres in China said: `Lipid-lowering drugs may have a preventive effect on ******* by mitigating chronic inflammation, a crucial factor in the development of many malignancies.’

Some eight million *** adults take lipid-lowering drugs such as statins.

First used in the *** in the 1980s, statins cut fatty deposits in arteries and have been a game-changer in tackling cardiovascular *********.

Previous research on statins and individual cancers has been mixed, with some showing a positive and others a negative effect.

The new study is observational and while the team showed links between statins and a reduced risk of *******, 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: “More research is needed. The lower risk found was independent of length of statin use, so the association may not be a causal one.

“Regardless, the cardiovascular benefits are reason enough for discussing their use jointly between a doctor and patients.”

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