Hartford, CT - Statins neither reduce nor increase the risk of developing cancer, a new meta-analysis concludes [1]. According to the study authors, the study is the fourth meta-analysis to show no link between the lipid-lowering drugs and the incidence of cancer, dashing hopes raised by smaller observational and retrospective studies that hinted at an anticancer effect of statin drugs.

"We could find no type of cancer that statins benefited or subtype of statin that reduced the risk of cancer," Dr Krista M Dale (University of Connecticut, Hartford) and colleagues write in the January 4, 2006 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The authors conducted a literature review dating back as far as 1966, ultimately including 26 randomized controlled trials of sufficient size and duration that also included information on cancer diagnoses or death. In all, 6662 incident cancers and 2407 cancer deaths were observed among the 86 936 participants in the studies, but no differences were seen between patients randomized to statins vs controls.

"I think our study is pretty definitive," senior author Dr C Michael White (University of Connecticut) commented to heartwire, particularly since the bulk of the patient data came from "world-class multicenter trials" such as 4S, CARE, LIPID, AFCAPS/TexCAPS, and the HPS.

The effect of statins was also neutral when the data were analyzed according to cancer subtype, as well as statin brand, properties, or dose.

"Since previous case-control studies were evaluating specific cancers, we looked at individual cancers of the skin, breast, lung, prostate, gastrointestinal tract, and colon and could find no impact of statins on cancer incidence," White told heartwire. "Given the different pharmacologic characteristics of statins (hydrophilic vs lipophilic, synthetic vs natural), we did an analysis of cancer incidence and cancer death for hydrophilic statins only, lipophilic only, synthetic only, and natural statins only. Then we looked at each individual statin to see whether a specific agent might provide benefit and could find no reductions either. It seemed pretty clear that in randomized trials, statins just did not have an impact on cancer."

The good news, White points out, is that patients can be reassured that statins don't cause cancer. "That is a positive," White said. On the other hand, "People who were taking the drugs simply for cancer prevention should rethink that strategy, since it is expensive and could increase their risk of statin side effects and drug interactions with no real proof of benefit."

Moreover, White continued, "I also think that medical science should move to other, more pharmacologically promising, avenues of cancer research."