Medications cut risk of pancreatic, throat cancers, study finds

Statin drugs commonly used to lower cholesterol and fight heart disease appear to cut the risk of pancreatic and throat cancer by more than half, a study said Monday.


It was the latest in a number of reports to attribute anti-cancer properties to statins, and comes after Saturday’s release in Florida of a study involving 40,000 women that found the drugs lowered the risk of breast cancer by 51 percent.

Earlier reports also have ascribed a protective effect to statins for prostate and colon cancers, though why they may limit tumor growth in both humans and test animals has not been clear.

The latest finding “suggests that these compounds may have health benefits that extend well beyond the heart and may affect the entire body,” said John Johanson, a physician at the University of Illinois.


He made the comment in a report released at an annual meeting of gastrointestinal experts, where Monday’s study from Veterans Administration doctors was presented.



• The latest facts and figures


The study involved nearly half a million veterans, mostly men, under treatment from 1998 to 2004.

One part of the study found that statins were associated with a 56 percent reduced incidence of esophageal cancer, after age, gender, smoking and alcohol use were taken into account. A second part of the study found a 59 percent reduced risk of pancreatic cancer after taking into account the same factors.

“The results should be interpreted with caution,” the study said, because the size of doses and how long the drugs were taken were not factored into the study.

Statins combat the formation of so-called “bad” cholesterol — low-density lipoprotein — in the blood. Formulations which include Pfizer Inc.’s $10 billion-a-year Lipitor, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.’s Pravachol and Merck and Co. Inc.’s Zocor are the world’s best-selling drugs.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7874069/

A true wonderdrug. Maybe we should start taking them from birth. But wasn't there a study that linked these things to increased mortality from cancer?

See? Every disease is a statin deficiency.

How did ANYONE ever survive without them?

It's amazing what diseases the statins prevent. What is more amazing is that most studies show that those who take statins have a higher death rate than the controls. If you look at enough data, you can always find correlations. I don't know how many diseases the researchers analyzed to find the two cancers that showed a correlation. Of course they don't mention in the article if there were cancers that showed and increase with statins.

The lobbying and funding behind statins is astronomical. They already have many paid "scientists" calling for statins to be dispensed into public water supply, to save populations....

Wa'il

Statins, marvelous statins...

A good way to answer whether those claims are true would be to conduct clinical studies to see if people taking statins get cancer less often than people not taking them.

What? Already been done? And the people who took the statins had higher cancer rates than the people not taking them?

If an epidemiological study shows opposite results to those of numerous large CLINICAL trials, then those trials must be wrong! Clearly!

Ok, I'm just being cynical here...but it IS frustrating!

This from a biochemist/enlightened nutritionalist on an Australian forum;



Cheers,

Malcolm

Next they'll be claiming statins can grow hair.

Statis are killers; the last I read, statins do not prevent heart disease, and even state this in the fine print. They do lower cholesterol which is about as important to us as is blood. What a bunch of BS.

Statins are powered by huge ammounts of money, I've read several reports on this subject and the money that is changing hands to promote them is phenominal! Its absolutely disgraceful.

Statins will go down in history as one of the biggest money making cons of the 21st century!

I dont think anyone knows how good or bad they are cos nobody is unbiased enough to tell the truth. I wont ever take em though!

jo

Here in the UK statins are available over the counter at a pharmacy - no blood test needed, no doctor's advice, and as many as you like. The aim seems to be the lower your cholesterol the better. No matter what damage is caused to the body because cholesterol is too low. The two ads showing on TV, one with a man, another with a woman, seem to indicate that if you reach 45 without a heart attack or coronary heart disease it's some kind of miracle and if you want to live any longer take these statins. Stuff it I say, I've read what these drugs can do to you. My OH takes them because his doctor told him so, he didn't have the guts to question him. I told him not to take them and try LC instead. He ignored me, still takes them and now he has muscle and joint pains and several other symptoms associated with statin use but because the doctor said he should keep on taking them he must be right. I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole and I have no qualms of standing up to a doctor and saying thanks but no thanks.

Apparently ( I read somewhere) statins are as dangerous to pregnant women as thalidomide was in the 60's. Selling them over the counter as they do here in Britain is madness.


Jo