According to a new study conducted by Duke University Medical Center, cholesterol lowering medicine or statins may be useful in reducing cancer recurrence risk.
Those prostate cancer patients, who had had a surgery called radical prostatectomy, could possibly reduce their risk of having their cancer reemerge or recur by taking statins or cholesterol lowering drugs.
These statin drugs were seen to reduce the risk of having men’s prostate cancer return by as much as 30%. Also it was seen that among those who took the highest dosages, that risk of recurrence fell by as much as 50%.
While the researchers are not yet claiming that it is the actual drugs that cut the risk, they have termed the findings “compelling”. It is thought that a possible reason could be that those who use statins may be more health conscious in general and may visit doctors more regularly, thereby lessening their chances of having their cancer return. This could explain the link in part.
More remarkably however the study also showed that those who took the highest doses of statins lowered their risk the most. The study is likely to have significant ramifications, particularly in light of the fact that according to the American Cancer Society, one man in six will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during his lifetime, and one in 35 will die of the disease.
