Statins Do Not Reduce Breast Cancer Occurance
 

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NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Contrary to experimental evidence, the use of statins and other lipid-lowering agents does not appear to reduce the risk of breast cancer, according to a report in the October 24th issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.


Laboratory studies have suggested that statins can halt breast carcinogenesis by disrupting the cell cycle progression and promoting apoptosis, lead author Dr. A. Heather Eliassen, from Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, and colleagues note. The findings from human studies, however, have been inconsistent.

Part of the problem stems from the fact that the link between cholesterol levels and breast cancer risk is itself unclear, the report states. Because cholesterol is a precursor for sex steroid hormones, elevated levels might be expected to raise the risk of this malignancy.

Using data from the Nurses' Health Study, the researchers assessed the occurrence of breast cancer in more than 70,000 women who were cancer-free at baseline and followed for up to 12 years. Self-reported serum cholesterol levels were assessed prospectively, while statin use was evaluated retrospectively.

A total of 3177 incident cases of invasive breast cancer occurred in the study group, the report indicates.

Current statin use was not significantly associated with breast cancer risk nor was the duration of use, the authors state. Moreover, women with total cholesterol levels of 240 mg/dL or higher were no more or less likely to develop breast cancer than their peers with levels below 180 mg/dL.

The new findings suggest that the beneficial effects of statin use noted in experimental studies do not apply to humans, the investigators conclude. Still, "further study is warranted to evaluate the associations of longer durations of statin use and specific types of statins with breast cancer risk."