Statin therapy no help in preventing breast cancer

Birmingham, February 6: Statin therapy might not exactly work in curbing breast cancerdefine. This has been revealed in a report that appears in the February issue of Cancer Prevention Research, the journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

Statins are basically a class of drugs that are administered in order to reduce cholesterol levels and prevent heart disease. It has a high success rate and is sold under the brand names such as Lipitor and Zocor.

However, the drug is seen with a suspicious eye as far as its role in cancerdefine prevention is considered. Epidemiology studies have shown mixed results regarding statins.

The current research was carried under the guidance of National Cancer Institute (NCI) and included Ronald Lubet, PhD, an NCI program director, and Clinton Grubbs, PhD, director of the Chemoprevention Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

The study was conducted on animals in a laboratory wherein atorvastatin and lovastatin were tested by the scientists. It was basically done to see if statins are really helpful in preventing ER-positive and ER-negative breast cancer.

Lubet said, “We saw no real efficacy from either statin.” He further added, “Prior studies have shown some but limited efficacy in breast cancer models when these drugs were given through a method that would be the equivalent of intravenously in humans. However, that is not the way people take statins.”

In the research, rats were given atorvastatin in their diet at 125 or 500 mg/kg. It was discovered that there was no difference in the frequency of estrogen receptor-positive mammary or its numerosity. Also, atorvastatin did not show any reaction in an estrogen receptor-negative model in mice.

But when the same mice were administered 0.4mg of tamoxifendefine or 80 mg of bexarotene, there was a noteworthy fall in the multiplicity of mammary tumors.

On the other hand, using these treatments in combination with atorvastatin did not increase the good effects of these other agents.

Lovastatin was administered at 100 and 50 mg/kg. But it also did not show any major preventive-effect, same as atorvastatin.

Scientists added optimistically that they will continue research on statin use and cancer prevention. Lubet was quoted as saying, “There is always the question of whether there will be a subset of breast cancer where this class of agents will be effective, but the answer at this point is that the present preclinical studies do not support the use of statins as general breast cancer preventive agents.”