Statins Vs. Advanced Prostate Cancer

(WebMD)  Cholesterol-lowering statin drugs may lower men's chances of developing advanced prostate cancer, a new study shows.

But it is "premature to recommend the use of statins for the prevention of prostate cancer," write the researchers, who included Elizabeth Platz, Sc.D., of Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Platz and colleagues studied data from nearly 35,000 men who were health care professionals. In 1990, the men had never had cancer and were in their late 50s, on average. They noted all the drugs they took, including cholesterol-lowering drugs, in 1990 and every two years through 2002.

From 1990 to 2002, the men had 2,579 cases of prostate cancer, 316 of which were advanced cases.

Overall, statin use didn't appear to sway the men's chances of being diagnosed with prostate cancer. But advanced prostate cancer was a different story.

Men taking statin drugs were about half as likely to have advanced prostate cancer as those not taking statins, even after taking other risk factors (such as age) into account. The longer men had been taking statins, the less likely they were to have advanced prostate cancer, the study shows.

Current statin users were also more likely to have had at least one screening test for PSA (prostate specific antigen). High PSA levels can be an indicator of prostate cancer or other noncancerous prostate problems.

PSA screening "did not appear to account for our findings," write Platz and colleagues. But they say it's still possible that "subtle differences in patterns of PSA screening between statin users and nonusers" may have biased the results.

The researchers call for further studies to see statins can prevent advanced prostate cancer.

SOURCES: Platz, E. Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Dec. 20, 2006; Vol. 98: pp. 1819-1825. News release, Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

By Miranda Hitti
Reviewed by Louise Chang, M.D

[olgreyghost]

alphaa10:

"Good stuff, Maynard." More "hamsters" to you :)

[alphaa10-2009]

For those interested in prostate cancer, see the video link to the right of this article.

1. Johns Hopkins researchers, aware that 15 percent of prostate cancers occur with a PSA beneath 4, are working for a better test. A Johns Hopkins lab has developed a prostate cancer indicator that is 94 percent accurate.

This is especially important for those who want the earliest diagnosis possible, in order to start an aggressive defense.

2. Other researchers are trying to isolate the gene responsible for prostate cancer, and believe they are close to success.

3. One study recommends radiation for men whose cancer has not reached metastasis.

[alphaa10-2009]

Yes, I also noted CBS had skipped the comment box for the Bush military announcement-- news that is guaranteed to spike traffic for their hamster-driven website server farm. Perhaps "the system is down" for reasons that have nothing to do with hamsters, but perhaps even... installation of a new, hamster-driven server farm to add capacity.

On the statins, all users should make sure to get enough CoEnzyme Q10-- say, at least 100mg by daily supplement. Statins have been demonstrated to deplete the body's production of this important enzyme, one so important that the first pharmaceutical company to market a statin also had considered issuing the statin with a CoQ10 supplement- but decided not to do so.

For those who still believe PSA is the only gauge to watch, the researcher who developed the PSA test has disavowed his previous claims that PSA is a valid predictor of prostate cancer risk. Translation-- get a second opinion, and dod not rely on PSA as a measure of risk. Use a cluster of known risk factors to assess risk (ie. smoking, etc.)

[olgreyghost]

Great, we can't comment on Bush increasing the size of the U.S. military but we can comment on the fact that we males can save our prostrates while destroying our livers and skeletal-muscle tissue with cholesterol-lowering statins...