Now statins help prostate patients to live longer
STATINS could extend the life of men with advanced prostate cancer, according to a major study.
The cholesterol-lowering drugs were found to delay the progression of tumours by an extra ten months.
The study suggests patients can keep prostate cancer at bay for significantly longer if they take statins at the same time as undergoing hormone therapy. If other studies back up its findings, men could soon be routinely prescribed statins during prostate cancer treatment.
Prostate cancer is the most common form of cancer in men and there are 41,700 new cases in Britain a year. It is responsible for 10,800 deaths annually, although around eight out of ten patients survive for at least five years.
The breakthrough harvard study, published i n the journal JAMA Oncology, involved 926 men with advanced prostate cancer of whom 31 per cent were taking a statin at the time they started a hormone treatment to suppress tumour cells.
Researchers found that in these men the disease remained under control for an average of 27.5 months. This compared to patients not taking the drugs in whom the illness remained stable for 17.4 months.
For some men taking statins, the prostate cancer remained stable for more than three years before spreading. The highest level recorded was 37.7 months.
Between f i ve and ten million Britons take statins which work by lowering levels of cholesterol, and thereby avoiding the build-up of fatty deposits in the blood which trigger heart attacks and strokes.
But research has also shown that the drugs offer protection against certain forms of cancer including breast, lung, skin and bowel, as well as prostate.
Scientists think statins block certain chemicals – or enzymes – which encourage tumour growth.
Dr Lauren harshman, a cancer specialist at the Lank Centre for Genitourinary Oncology, at the DanaFarber Institute, which is linked to harvard Medical School in Boston, said: ‘ This median ten- month benefit in delaying disease progres
‘Effective and
affordable’
sion suggests that statins could be a valuable addition to our current therapies for prostate cancer.’
Dr Iain Frame, of Prostate Cancer UK, added: ‘Men can often manage advanced prostate cancer for many years by taking hormone therapy, however the treatment eventually stops working and the cancer becomes much more difficult to restrain.
‘Whilst we continue to explore why men’s cancers stop responding to hormone therapies, this study suggests that taking statins alongside these established treatments could be an effective and affordable way to extend the time that they can keep the cancer in check.’