Statins slash colon cancer risk

Cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins may prevent various forms of cancer, including colon cancer, a researcher said yesterday.

Israelis who took statins had a 51 per cent lower risk of developing colon cancer than those who did not take the drugs, Dr Stephen Gruber of the University of Michigan told a meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

But Mr Gruber warned his study was "observational," or based on questionnaires rather than strict scientific controls, so it is far too early to definitively conclude that stains can prevent cancer.

His team studied 3,342 Israeli patients, about half of them with colorectal cancer, comparing them to a similar number of people matched for age, gender, and ethnicity.

They were all asked whether they had taken a statin for at least five years.

Statins greatly reduce the risk of stroke and heart attack and may help patients with multiple sclerosis and even Alzheimer's disease.

Statins - which include Pfizer Inc.'s $10 billion-a-year Lipitor, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.'s Pravachol and Merck and Co. Inc's Zocor - interfere with an enzyme called HMG-CoA reductase that enables the liver to produce cholesterol.

In laboratory studies they also interfered with the growth of cancer cells.

"Pravastatin (Pravachol) and simvastatin (Zocor) had similarly protective effects" against colorectal cancer, Mr Gruber said, suggesting all members of the statin class somehow interfere with development of tumors.

Mr Gruber said other types of medicines that help control buildup of artery-clogging fats did not appear to have reduced the cancer risk.