Some cholesterol drugs reduce cancer risk
A study has found that people with ulcerative colitis who take statins are less likely to develop colorectal cancer.A new study has found that taking cholesterol-lowering statins is associated with a reduced risk of colorectal cancer in people with ulcerative colitis. Researchers found that statins, which are commonly prescribed for heart health, can be used as cancer prevention in cases of inflammatory bowel disease.
People with ulcerative colitis are six times more likely to get some form of colorectal cancer. The main reason for this is inflammation. Chronic inflammation damages the genetic material of colon cells, creating mutations that can become cancerous. And it increases the likelihood of viral and bacterial infections, which can stimulate the growth of cancer cells.
Now researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden have tested whether cholesterol-lowering statins, one of the most commonly prescribed heart-healthy drugs, can protect patients with ulcerative colitis from developing cancer.
Researchers compared the performance of 10,546 patients with inflammatory bowel disease, half of whom were taking statins and the other half were not. The majority (69.9%) of the study subjects were diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. After a median follow-up period of 5.6 years, 70 people in the group that took statins and 90 people in the group that did not take the drugs were diagnosed with colorectal cancer.
The researchers noted that the protective effect of statins was directly proportional to the duration of taking the drugs and could be observed after treatment for two years. The researchers also recorded fewer colorectal cancer deaths in the "statin group" (20) compared to the group not taking the drug (37), and fewer deaths from any cause (529 vs. 719). The protective effect was statistically significant only in patients with ulcerative colitis.
"More research is needed to clarify whether there is a cause-and-effect relationship, at what point in the pathologic process statins should be prescribed, what a reasonable dose would be, and how long treatment should last to be beneficial," the study authors conclude.
The study is published in the journal eClinical Medicine.