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Statins and cancer risk

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Prior work has shown that patients on statins with the lowest levels of LDL have the highest rates of cancer. This raised some concern that perhaps the statins themselves were somehow causing the cancers. To answer this question, researchers in Boston performed a meta-analysis including randomized controlled trials of statins vs. no statins which reported incident cancer rates. They found a total of 15 trials to include.

I think this meta-analysis study should provide peace of mind to prescribers of statins who are concerned about cancer and statins. Furthermore, there are several studies which suggest statins are helpful in either preventing cancer recurrence or in all-cause mortality for cancer patients (citations below). I do not think that this data supports stopping statins for patients currently undergoing cancer treatment, or those in a period of surveillance.

Other studies have shown that statins:

• were protective for bladder cancer progression;
• lowered all cause mortality among prostate cancer patients;
• and decreased rates of colon cancer recurrence.