Study published showing statins reduce risk of colorectal cancer
Last Updated: May 25, 2005



NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - In a case-control study, the use of
statins for at least five years apparently halved the risk of
developing colorectal cancer. The findings are published in The New
England Journal of Medicine for May 26, but were reported last June
at a medical convention. This is the report filed at the time:


NEW ORLEANS, June 7, 2004 (Reuters Health) - In a population-based,
case-control study conducted in Israel, statin use was associated
with a 46% reduction in the risk of colorectal cancer (CRC) in
adjusted analyses.

These findings, reported at the 40th annual meeting of the American
Society of Clinical Oncology, support prior studies showing that HMG-
CoA reductase inhibitors have antitumor effects.

At a briefing with reporters, Dr. Stephen B. Gruber of the University
of Michigan said, "these observational data suggest that statins
deserve further investigation in chemoprevention and therapeutic
clinical trials."

The study involved 1849 Israeli colorectal cancer patients and 1959
healthy controls matched for age, gender, and ethnicity. Statin use,
most often pravastatin or simvastatin, was more common in controls
(11.3%) than in CRC cases (5.8%).

"In our study, use of statins for at least 5 years was associated
with a 51% reduction in the risk of colorectal cancer, with an odds
ratio of 0.49," Dr. Gruber reported. This association remained
largely unchanged in analyses adjusting for age,
hypercholesterolemia, ethnicity, aspirin or NSAID use, and APC
mutations, with an odds ratio of 0.54.

The use of non-statin cholesterol-lowering agents, such as fibrates,
was not associated with reduced risk of colorectal cancer, suggesting
that the protective effect is specific to statins.

Mechanistic studies provide support for the antitumor effects of
statins, Dr. Gruber said. "We know that statins inhibit RAS and RhoA,
two proteins that are potentially carcinogenic," he said.

In the current New England Journal, two editorialists hope the study
findings might move medicine beyond the "one drug, one disease"
model. "It's tempting to think," they say, "that systemically
targeting multiple diseases common to aging is not only theoretically
feasible but within our reach."