Those receiving statins have same rates of cancer and death as those given placebo
THURSDAY, Sept. 2 (HealthDay News) -- Statin therapy does not appear to be associated with increased cancer rates and mortality, according to research presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress, held from Aug. 28 to Sept. 1 in Stockholm, Sweden.
Jonathan Emberson, Ph.D., of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, and colleagues evaluated data on 170,000 individuals from 26 randomized controlled trials, including more than 10,000 who developed cancer and more than 3,500 who died of the disease.
Compared to individuals receiving placebo, the investigators found that individuals undergoing statin therapy had the same rates of cancer and death. The data also revealed that cancer risk was not elevated with a high statin dose compared to standard statin dosing. In addition, potent statin regimens used to further lower cholesterol levels in individuals with already relatively low cholesterol were not found to increase the risk of cancer.
"Statin therapy had no adverse effect on cancer at any site or in any group of individuals, irrespective of their cholesterol levels. There was also no association of cancer with statin dose or duration," Emberson said in a statement.
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