Breast Cancer : statins play a protective role

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Published the 28.08.2017 at 17: 15

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cancer seinstatinecholestérol

Statins do not reduce only the rate of blood cholesterol. According to work presented at the european congress of cardiology, which is currently being held in Barcelona (Spain), they would reduce the risk of developing breast cancer or dying in women with high cholesterol.

“This study is the evidence most probative to confirm the link between high blood cholesterol and breast cancer, a topic that has fascinated researchers for several years now,” assured Dr. Rahul Potluri, profess at the medical university of Aston (Great Britain) and one of the authors of the study.

This british study is based on the follow-up of more than a million women over 40 years old over 14 years. More than 16 000 of them presented a high cholesterol at the beginning of the study. These volunteers were then compared to women of the same age but with a blood cholesterol levels normal.

Fewer cases and deaths

It appears that patients with high cholesterol were 45 % less risk of developing breast cancer, and if they develop, the risk of dying is reduced by 40% compared to other women.
“If the diagnosis of high serum cholesterol leads to a reduced risk of breast cancer, this may be bound to an element inherent to the disease or the patient, or more probably the anti-cholesterol widely used as the statins “, decrypts the Dr. Potluri.

These findings seem to join to the studies conducted in recent years. Recently, work has shown that these cholesterol-lowering drugs associated with a treatment to hormone therapy reduced the risk of relapse of breast cancer.
In 2013, in Science, researchers have also pointed out that a molecule of cholesterol promoted the growth of tumors in mice. However, with statins, the malignant growth is slowed down.

“These results provide the best justification for launching a clinical trial to evaluate the protective effect of statins in patients with breast cancer, and this is what we’ll do,” said Dr. Paul Carter, head of the work.