Statins Help Fight Other Cancers

Two new studies show that statins,which have been shown to improve survivaloutcomes in patients with prostatecancer, can help fight off other cancersas well. The studies were presented atDigestive Disease Week 2005 in Chicago.For the studies, data were collectedon 484,226 patients from October 1998to June 2004. The medical records ofall patients were studied to determinethe effect of statins on pancreatic andesophageal cancer. The researchersfound that the risk of developing pancreaticcancer was reduced by 59%among those taking statins, and the riskof esophageal cancer was cut by 56%.In addition to these 2 studies, otherstudies involving breast cancer andlung cancer, as well as prostate cancer,have shown encouraging data onstatins' value in fighting these diseases.Using the same database as the otherstudies, the researchers found that therisks of developing these cancers werereduced by 51% (breast), 48% (lung),and 54% (prostate) in patients usingstatins.