Big Pharma's New Mass-Drugging Agenda Pushes Statin Drugs for ... American Chronicle, CA - 48 minutes ago It was funded by Crestor maker Astrazeneca, and it claims that statin drugs save lives when given to healthy people who show no signs of high cholesterol! ...
Got low cholesterol? Statins still might help The Oregonian - OregonLive.com, OR - Nov 26, 2008 A study out this month raises questions about who might benefit from taking cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins. Between 16 million and 20 million ...
Patients look to lifestyle, diet instead of drugs Asbury Park Press, NJ - Nov 25, 2008 High cholesterol is a key risk factor for heart attack and stroke, and efforts to lower blood levels of the fatty substance have turned statins such as ...
Health Hype About Statins Center for Media and Democracy, WI - Nov 28, 2008 Voices of caution are responding to recent breathless headlines about the supposed heart-health benefits of statin drugs. Publications including Fox News, ...
Drugs you can't have Stuff.co.nz, New Zealand - Nov 30, 2008 Here are a few of the good news stories: * Statins for heart disease: Around 300000 New Zealanders are now using cheap and effective anti- cholesterol drugs...
Young Children Now Being Targeted For Statin Drug Use Natural News.com, AZ - Nov 17, 2008 But the report recommends that children as young as eight should be considered for treatment with cholesterol drugs if they have LDL ("bad") cholesterol...
Stopping statins following a heart attack doubles death risk Therapeutics Daily (subscription) (press release), PA - In the study, researchers used data from the UK General Practice Research Database to assess the effects of statins - drugs ...
Tianyin Pharmaceutical Co., Inc. Receives Chinese SFDA Approval Pharmaceutical Online (press release), PA - Simvastatin is a Statin drug which is used to control hypercholesterolemia and treat coronary heart diseases. This is the only Statin type drug approved by ...
Statins after heart attack NHS Choices, UK - Aug 4, 2008 ?Heart attack victims ?should not give up taking statins?? reported The Times saying that people who have a heart attack and who give up taking statins...
Intensive Lipid Intervention in the Post-ENHANCE Era RedOrbit, TX - BusinessWeek published articles entitled: "Do cholesterol drugs do any good?"10 and "Heart disease: Not about cholesterol?"11 wherein one physician was ...
Coming soon to a child near you: The war against cholesterol Chiropractic News (press release) - Aug 2, 2008 The widespread prescribing of statin drugs to people with no preexisting heart disease is a public relations victory with little basis in clinical science. ...
Statins May Protect Against Memory Loss eMaxHealth.com, NC - During the five-year study, 27 percent took a statin drug. A total of 130 people developed dementia or cognitive impairment. Scientists controlled for a ...
Current Perspectives on Statins - DJ Maron, S Fazio, MRF Linton - Circulation, 2000 - Am Heart Assoc ... more than other cholesterol-lowering drugs, and lower ...Statins are well tolerated
and have an excellent ... in patients with and without coronary heart disease and ...
[CITATION] Intensive Statin Therapy?A Sea Change in Cardiovascular Prevention - EJ Topol - New England Journal of Medicine, 2004 - Mass Med Soc ... in the CRP level with the two drugs, but in ... in which patients with acute ischemic heart disease made ... independent and interdependent ef- fects of statins on LDL ...
Source: Google Scholar
Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs May Protect Against Cancer
The cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins, used by many to protect against heart disease, may also guard against several kinds of cancers.
Already shown to shield against prostate cancer, two new studies suggest statins also provide a greater than 50 percent reduction in risk with pancreatic and esophageal cancer, the researchers said.
The studies were to be presented Monday at Digestive Disease Week 2005, in Chicago.
"To my knowledge, statins are one of the best cancer prevention agents I have come across," said lead researcher Dr. Vikas Khurana, associate program director of the Gastroenterology and Hepatology Training Program and an assistant professor of medicine at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center.
For the two studies, Khurana’s team collected data on 484,226 patients who participated in the South Central Veterans Administration Health Care Network from October 1998 to June 2004. To determine the effect of statins on pancreatic and esophageal cancer, the researchers looked at the medical records of the patients.
Pancreatic cancer is one of the most deadly forms of cancer. There are about 32,000 new cases diagnosed each year, and only about one in 25 patients will survive for five years or more, according to the American Cancer Society (ACS).
Esophageal cancer is about three times more common among men than women, and about 50 percent more common among blacks. Esophageal cancer is often diagnosed at a late stage, and most people with the disease eventually die from it, the researchers said. This year, 14,520 Americans will be diagnosed with esophageal cancer and 13,570 will die from it, according to the ACS.
The study researchers found that among those taking statins, the risk of developing pancreatic cancer was reduced by 59 percent, and the risk of esophageal cancer was cut by 56 percent.
Khurana said that in addition to his studies, animal and cell studies show that statins are effective against cancer. "What is lacking is human data" based on clinical trials, he added.
In addition to the studies on pancreatic and esophageal cancer presented Monday, Khurana’s group presented similarly encouraging data on statins’ value against breast cancer, prostate cancer and lung cancer over the weekend at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Orlando, he said.
Those three studies, which looked at the same database, found statins were associated with a 51 percent reduced risk of breast cancer, a 54 percent reduced risk of prostate cancer and a 48 percent reduced risk of lung cancer.
Khurana was quick to point out that statins are not yet proven cancer fighters.
"The therapy still has to be for lipid lowering," he said. "But I believe we will be seeing the day when statins will be approved for cancer prevention. We need to look at this drug, it might be the next wonder drug after aspirin."
In fact, the Alzheimer’s Association notes that some studies have found a link between taking statins to reduce cholesterol levels and a decreased risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
One expert is cautious about reading too much into the new research.
"These findings are preliminary but interesting and intriguing," said Dr. Durado Brooks, director for colorectal and prostate cancer at the American Cancer Society. "But it’s going to require some more support."
Brooks believes that a well-designed clinical trial is needed before statins can be shown to really protect people from developing cancer. "I don’t want to get too excited," he said. "It would be very encouraging if this data is borne out by a more sophisticated and complete experimental design."
Comment by Elizabeth G. Nabel M.D.
