Study: Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs May Help Prevent Breast Cancer

Cholesterol-lowering medications may help prevent breast cancer in older women, according to University of Pittsburgh researchers.

The researchers reported in the Journal of Women's Health that they found in a relatively small trial that older women who took statins and non-statin lipid-lowering drugs experienced a 68 percent reduction in their risk of breast cancer over approximately seven years.

In reviewing data on 7,528 white women age 65 years and older who participated in the Study of Osteoporotic Fractures, the researchers found that 3.3 percent of those who reported no use of lipid-lowering drugs were diagnosed with breast cancer.

In comparison, only 2.1 percent of the women using statins, and an even lower 1.3 percent of the women using nonstatin lipid-lowering drugs, developed breast cancer.

"While scientists have known for years that cholesterol inhibition serves to inhibit tumor cell growth, our analysis is one of the first to look exclusively at the relationship between lipid-lowering medications and the development of breast cancer, and our findings are dramatically positive," said lead investigator Jane Cauley, professor of epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health.

"There is a significant difference in the percentage of breast cancer events between women who used lipid-lowering drugs and those who did not, and these findings have important public health implications given the widespread use of these medications today," said Cauley.

"Our findings need confirmation by other, larger studies involving more women and randomized clinical trials before we can recommend therapeutic interventions to prevent breast cancer with these agents," she added.

Other Sources: University of Pittsburgh