In groups where the risk of no treatment is sufficiently high, the benefit will obscure any risk associated with the treatment, he said. We can put this story of statins cancer risk in bed.This gives reason to believe that statins are safe and very effective in reducing heart disease and stroke, he said. The same things that help reduce the risk of heart disease decreases the risk of many cancers, he said. Avoid smoking, eating a healthy diet rich in fruits and vegetables and whole grains, regular exercise and maintaining a healthy weight, Goff said.
A common survival curve plotted for each diagnosis of cancer at 10 years showed no difference between the two groups, the researchers reported.
Stanley Rockson, MD, a cardiologist at the Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California;
Dr. Nicholas Mitsiades, a professor of medicine, hematology and oncology in L. Dan Duncan Cancer Center at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, said that not only the statins do not increase the risk of cancer, but there are some very preliminary evidence that may help treat or prevent some types of cancer such as prostate cancer.
Most studies are reassuring that you should not be concerned about the risk of cancer for those who received statins for all signs, he said. If you have an indication for statins because of high cholesterol and cardiovascular risk, and received a prescription from your doctor to take statins, you can take without fear of increased cancer risk.
Dr. David C. Goff, chairman of the department of epidemiology and prevention in the division of public health sciences at Wake Forest University Health Sciences Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, agreed. This is another strong piece of evidence that there is concern about the risk of cancer with statins, he said.
The new results are pretty conclusive, because the numbers are high and the results are convincing, said Dr. Stanley Rockson, a cardiologist at Stanford University School of Medicine. Even if you do not appear to increase cancer risk, statins do not give risks such as damage to the liver and muscle problems, he added.
For more information about high cholesterol and its treatment, visit the National Library of Medicine.
The study authors noted that because of how the couples were selected, their conclusions can not be generalized to the total population of U.S. adults taking statins, and recommended further analysis.
After an average of five years of follow-up from about 46 000 pairs of people who have used drugs to lower cholesterol or not to use them, 11.37 % of participants taking a statin advanced cancers, compared with 11.11 % of these people are not taking a statin, the study on the July 15 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
A large study appears to address new concerns that taking statins may increase cancer risk.