Reporting from the European Urology Association Congress in Berlin in the last week of March, Chris Berrie wrote:

The use of statins, rather than other cholesterol-lowering agents, significantly reduced the incidence of prostate cancer in the population-based Finnish Prostate Cancer Screening (FPCS) trial.

Although statins have been reported to have growth inhibitory effects on
prostate cancer cells in vitro, the evidence from epidemiological studies has
remained controversial. Indeed, some studies have shown a negative association
between statin use and risk of prostate cancer.

Principal investigator Teemu Murtola, MD, researcher in urology, School of
Public Health, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland, indicated that the poor
results for statins in previous trials could be due at least in part to
variations in prostate-specific antigen (PSA) measurements between statin users
and non-users.

In their study, Dr. Murtola and colleagues evaluated the association between use
of cholesterol drugs and prostate cancer incidence, stage and grade, and
included PSA values….

Overall, prostate cancer incidence was significantly lower for statin users than
non-users (4.0% vs 8.0%, respectively). A significant dose-response relationship
was seen for the total cumulative quantity of statin users and incidence of
prostate cancer….

In contrast, there were no significant differences seen for prostate cancer
incidence, stage or grade between users and non-users of other cholesterol drugs
(e.g. fibrates, resins).

While median PSA levels were lower and showed higher median free/total ratios
among users of both statins and fibrates, no correlations were seen between the
drug concentrations and PSA levels.

This analysis therefore shows a protective effect of statin use against prostate
cancer in a population that includes a large number of latent cancers identified
through this comprehensive screening.

Although the use of both statins and fibrates was associated with favourable PSA
levels and free/total PSA ratios, the researchers believe that as this effect is
not related to the dose of cholesterol agent used, it is probably due to a
common metabolic factor across the statin users, and thus could be related
instead to their hypercholesterolaemia or obesity.

Finally, Dr. Murtola added, “I also think that the results from this study
should be made known to men who have a high cholesterol and possibly familial
disposition to prostate cancer, to increase their compliance in their use of
statins.”

[Presentation title: Prostate Cancer and Serum PSA Among Users of Serum
Lipid-Lowering Drugs in the Finnish Prostate Cancer Screening Trial. Poster 803]

Full story in Docguide.com