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Do Statins Prevent Breast Cancer?

By Henry J. Fishman, M.D.
ConsumerAffairs.com

November 10, 2005

Dr. Henry Fishman • New This Week • Previous Topics • About Henry Fishman • Radio Features

The answer is no. Statins don’t help prevent cancer.

As you know statins are a medicine that lower blood cholesterol and can help prevent Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes and heart disease.

They can even help prevent cells from dividing abnormally in the lab but, according to an article published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, not in people.

Researchers analyzed data from 80,000 women with an average age of 65. They were all cancer-free initially. Twelve years year later 3,200 had breast cancer, including 1,700 women on statins.

Taking statins had no impact at all on a woman’s risk of breast cancer. The risk was the same whether a women took satins or not and it did not matter how long she was on them.

True, the study did not look at different kinds of statins and it didn’t look at other types of cancer.

Statins remain great drugs for lowering cholesterol and preventing other types of illnesses, just not breast cancer.

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