LipitorCare News » May 07

Statin Drugs- Posing a Grave Threat to Lung Cancer
07 May, 2007

If one believes recent findings revealed by the study based on cholesterol -lowering statin drugs, one of the perilous forms of cancer named lung cancer can be kept at bay with the use of statin drugs.

It was found that people who were consuming cholesterol-lowering drugs for over six months have slashed their chances of being lung cancer victim by 55 percent. And the same notion is applicable in the case of smokers who are taking statin drugs for more than four years, according to the Veterans Administration study. With the use of these cholesterol-lowering drugs, smokers remarkably can reduce the risk of lung cancer by 77 percent.

First reported in the year of 2005, the findings are based on the analysis of nearly half a million patient's medical records, compiled from 1998 to 2004 from US. eight southern states. The statins drugs incorporated in the study are Crestor, Lescol, Mevacor, Zocor, Lipitor and Pravachol.

The previous studies conducted so far have proposed that the drugs have great potential to minimize the probability of many cancers such as breast cancer, brain cancer, kidney cancer, colon cancer, prostate cancer, and leukemia.

The novel study, which published in the May edition of the journal Chest, firmly advocates that the statin drugs lend aid for the cancer prevention but doctors also warned that they can't eliminate cancer completely. Out of the 7,280 patients who were suffering from lung cancer and incorporated in this study, 1,994, 27.4 percent were making use of statins. Statins works by slowing down the onset and development of the disease at the molecular level and thus reduces the likelihood of cancer.