Statins, a new treatment in the fight against cancer? This is what a scientific team in Denmark sought to demonstrate.
The researchers studied 18,721 cancer patients over the age of 40 who were diagnosed between 1995 and 2007 in Denmark. They were all taking statins, a treatment for cholesterol, regularly before their cancer was discovered. The researchers compared their survival rate with that of 277,204 cancer patients who were not taking the drug.
Less 15% of deaths with statins
As a result, the cancer death rate of statin users is 15% lower than that of patients who do not. The effect of statins on survival rate was more obvious for 13 types of cancer, ranging from 11% for patients with pancreatic cancer, up to 36% for those with cervical cancer. uterus.
Dr Stig Bojesen from the University of Copenhagen who led the study explains that the reduction in the risk of death from statins may seem small, but that “chemotherapy also offers only a 15-20% reduction in risk. to die “…
For 14 other types of tumors, the results are less clear-cut. But the trend has continued regardless of the patient’s age, type of cancer, and whether or not the cancer has spread.
No effect in case of chemotherapy
Only patients who received chemotherapy showed no apparent benefit from taking statins.
The fact that the beneficial effect of statins has not been observed in people undergoing chemotherapy does not mean, for Dr Bojesen, that patients should prefer statins to the detriment of chemotherapy. On the contrary, he thinks that the therapeutic use of these anti-cholesterol drugs could be considered when no chemotherapy is possible for certain types of cancer.
Danish researchers have yet to verify whether statins also prevent cancer.
