Drug Statin Plays Vital Role in Cancer Survival

A Drug Statin Studied To Have Connection On Cancer Survival

According to a new study, Danish cancer patients taking cholesterol-lowering statin drugs were 15 percent less likely to die, of cancer or any other cause, than patients who were not on the popular medications.

Regardless of a person's age, cancer type, tumor size or whether it had spread, the pattern of progress is still evident. Only patients who had received chemotherapy showed no apparent benefit from taking statins.

The fact that a seeming benefit from statins was not seen in people taking chemotherapy, however, doesn't mean that people should avoid chemotherapy treatment and turn to statins instead, Dr. Bojesen of the University of Copenhagen stressed

Eric Jacobs, a researcher at the American Cancer Society who was not involved in the new work, called the findings "intriguing and exciting" but said they "do not mean that people with cancer should start using statins in the hopes of improving their progress."

Using multiple registries containing data on cancer, drug use, population characteristics and deaths for the nation of Denmark, the research team analyzed the cancer cases of 18,721 people over age 40 who were diagnosed between 1995 and 2007.

All were taking statins regularly before their cancer was discovered, and the study compared them to 277,204 people who had not regularly taken the drugs before getting cancer treatments.

Overall, the cancer death rate among statin users was 15 percent lower, and so was the rate of death from any cause.

The appearance of a benefit from taking statins was strongest for 13 cancer types in particular, ranging from an 11 percent lower death rate among pancreatic cancer patients to a 36 percent lower rate among cervical cancer patients. For 14 other tumor types, the results were less clear-cut.

Posted by George Daniels on Saturday November 10 2012, 4:21 AM EST. Ref: Yahoo. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, Health. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0