The association between statins and prostate cancer

This study was published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention 2007 Nov;16(11):2226-32

 

Study title and authors:

Cholesterol-lowering drugs and prostate cancer risk: a population-based case-control study.

Murtola TJ, Tammela TL, Lahtela J, Auvinen A.

School of Public Health, University of Tampere, Tampere, FIN-33014, Finland. teemu.murtola@uta.fi

 

This study can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18006910

This study evaluated the association between cholesterol-lowering medication use and prostate cancer risk. The study included all newly diagnosed prostate cancer cases in Finland during 1995 to 2002 and matched controls (24,723 case control pairs).

The study found:
(a) Those taking statins had a 7% increased risk of prostate cancer compared to those not taking statins.
(b) Those taking fibrates had a 5% increased risk of prostate cancer compared to those not taking fibrates.
(c) Those taking other cholesterol lowering medications (resins and acipimox) had a 16% increased risk of prostate cancer compared to those not taking cholesterol lowering medications.
(d) Those with 14-167 cumulative daily doses of statins had a 6% increased risk of prostate cancer compared to those not taking statins.
(e) Those with 915-6,781 cumulative daily doses of statins had a 13% increased risk of prostate cancer compared to those not taking statins.