Breast cancer patients who take statins, the cholesterol-lowering drug, are significantly less likely to die from the disease in the short term, according to the largest study on the subject yet.
The condition is the most common kind of cancer in Britain, with some 55,000 new diagnoses a year. Breast cancer still kills 11,000 people annually, making it one of the deadliest cancers.
Academics in China have reviewed seven pieces of research involving a total of nearly 200,000 women and found that the most popular kind of statin, which reacts with fats, is linked to a 43 per cent lower chance of dying in the first four years after diagnosis.
The scientists said a rigorous clinical trial was needed to investigate whether the drugs could become a frontline treatment for cancer in their own right.
Statins are one of the most successful medicines in the western world, with more than 70 million courses prescribed each year in the UK alone.
Advertisement
They block the production of “bad” low-density cholesterol proteins by blocking its precursors in the liver, and help blood to circulate more freely by cutting deposits that hinder its flow.
There have been hints that they can do more than stave off cardiovascular problems. Several preliminary studies have suggested that they may shrink some cancer tumours, while others indicate they may have a protective effect against several kinds of cancer. There are reasons to believe the drugs may help to sensitise the immune system and smooth the path for chemotherapy.
Binliang Liu, who led the research at the National Cancer Centre in Beijing, said it was not yet clear how statins might benefit breast cancer patients, but the connection seemed to be increasingly clear. Hydrophilic, or water-reactive, statins were associated with a much smaller reduction in death risk, and the benefits linked to both forms of the drug tapered off after four years.
“I think lipophilic statins [the fat-binding variety] penetrate the cell membrane more easily, and they have been confirmed to have some good effects on the immune system, which may help to kill cancer cells,” she said. “We have not yet found the mechanism. Our next step is exploration.”
The findings, to be presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago this weekend, met with guarded optimism from British cancer charities.
Advertisement
Arnie Purushotham, the senior clinical adviser to Cancer Research UK, said that the science was still ambiguous.
Baroness Morgan of Drefelin, chief executive of Breast Cancer Now, said it was possible that statins could block some of the cancer’s escape routes from conventional treatment but further studies were needed. “While this research suggests some benefit of lipophilic statins in preventing earlier deaths from breast cancer, their effect in the long term remains unclear.”