Statins 'may raise cancer risk'

by FIONA MACRAE

Last updated at 11:56 24 July 2007


Statins, the anti-cholesterol drugs taken by millions of Britons, may increase the risk of cancer, doctors have warned.

Research indicated that people who successfully lower their cholesterol level with statins run a slightly higher risk of cancer than those whose levels stay raised.

But experts said the risk was so tiny - one extra case per 1,000 people - that it was easily outweighed by the benefits in preventing heart attacks and strokes.

Statins are routinely prescribed to survivors of heart attacks and strokes and people whose cholesterol is much higher than normal.

They cost the NHS more than £2million a day but are estimated to save at least 7,000 lives a year.

Researchers from Tufts University in Massachusetts made the cancer link after putting together the results of several other statin studies covering more than 40,000 people.

But their report, in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, stresses that it is not clear whether the heightened risk is due to the statins or related to low levels of LDL "bad" cholesterol, which plays a key role in arterial disease.

Lead researcher Richard Karas, a professor of medicine, urged patients not to stop taking their drugs and said: "This analysis doesn't implicate the statin in increasing the risk of cancer.

"The demonstrated benefits of statins in lowering the risk of heart disease remain clear. However certain aspects of lowering LDL with statins remain controversial and merit further research."

June Davison of the British Heart Foundation said: "While this highlights an association between low levels of LDL and cancer, it is not the same as saying that low LDL or statin use increases the risk of cancer.

"There is overwhelming evidence that lowering LDL cholesterol through statins saves lives.

"People should not stop taking their statin treatment on the basis of this research. If people have any concerns they should consult their doctor."

Statins have been so successful that doctors are being urged to prescribe them more widely, with new guidelines recommending that they are handed out to all adults judged to have a 20 per cent risk of developing heart disease in the next decade.

Known side-effects include muscle and liver problems, but a large-scale study published recently in the Lancet concluded they were safe and effective.

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