“Cholesterol-lowering statins taken by millions might help prevent prostate cancer returning,” according to The Daily Telegraph. The newspaper said a study has found that men taking statins before their prostate removal surgery were less likely to show signs of the cancer returning.
The study looked at data on 1,319 men who had their prostate removed as a result of prostate cancer, following them up for approximately two to three years on average. The researchers made statistical adjustments to account for differences between statin users and non-users. After this, they found that men who had been taking statins were at 30% reduced risk of having an increase in levels of prostate-specific antigen (PSA), a protein that can indicate the cancer is coming back. The study did not look at whether statin use was associated with differences in length of survival, or the risk of the cancer spreading to other parts of the body.
Statins have been hailed as a “wonder drug”
Although this study took into account a range of factors that could have affected the results, other differences between statin users and non-users could still have contributed to the differences seen. As the researchers suggest, if other studies support their findings, it would need a randomised controlled trial of statins to confirm any potential effect on recurrence rates.
The researchers looked at data collected on 1,319 men who received radical prostatectomy for prostate cancer. They identified those men who had been taking statins, and looked at whether the time taken for these men to have a recurrence of prostate cancer was different to those not taking statins.
The researchers obtained the data from the Shared Equal Access Regional Cancer Hospital (SEARCH) database. Men who received radical prostatectomy between 1996 and 2008 at five Veterans Association medical centres across the US were eligible. For inclusion, the men also had to have data available on their statin use, the characteristics of their cancer, their length of follow up and their race.
Recurrence of prostate cancer was defined based on raised PSA levels in the blood. Recurrence was defined as PSA levels higher than 0.2ng/mL on one occasion, two measurements of 0.2ng/mL, or receiving further treatment as a result of detectable PSA levels. Statin use before and after the surgery was assessed, with men taking statins for one or more days before surgery being classed as users. Statin use starting after surgery was not assessed.
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September 20th, 2010 at 7:41 pm
Scientists from an Israeli institute are developing a novel breath test that can detect early signs of breast, lung, bowel and prostate cancer.
The team believes that further work could lead to a cheap, portable “electronic nose” that can help doctors diagnose disease early.
“This study shows that an ‘electronic nose’ can distinguish between healthy and malignant breath, and can also differentiate between the breath of patients with different cancer types,” express.co.uk quoted Professor Abraham Kuten, one of the researchers at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, as saying.
“If we can confirm these initial results in large-scale studies, this new technology could become a simple tool for early diagnosis of cancer along with imaging. It could also be an easy way to assess and monitor the effectiveness of cancer treatment and detect relapses earlier,” Kuten added.
During the study, scientists carried out tests on 177 volunteers including healthy participants and patients with different cancers aged between 20 and 75.
The research saw people breathe into a mouthpiece to have a sample collected. “Pulses” of breath were then passed over sensors that can detect minute amounts of chemicals before computers analysed the data.
The study appears in the British Journal of Cancer.
September 21st, 2010 at 12:00 am
A drug commonly prescribed for people with high cholesterol may also be effective in treating prostate cancer, according to new research by Dr. Xiao-Yan Wen at St. Michael’s Hospital.
Rosuvastatin — a statin drug sold as Crestor — suppressed the growth of transplanted human prostate cancer cells in mice.
“Our data provided solid pre-clinical evidence and a strong rationale for clinical trials of statins in the treatment of prostate cancer,” said Wen, whose research appears in the September issue of European Urology, the journal of the European Association of Urology.
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in Canadian men — one in seven men will develop the disease during his lifetime and one in 27 will die from it. Despite improvements in treatments such as surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, many patients still progress to advanced stages.
Recent clinical trials have shown encouraging results regarding the use of angiogenic inhibitors — substances that prevent the growth of blood vessels that feed tumors.