In a new study, researchers found that women who take statins in the long term could be less likely to develop ovarian cancer.
The same result was also found in women who carry the BRCA1/2 gene fault. Having the BRCA1/2 fault puts women at a higher risk of ovarian cancer than the general population.
The research was conducted by a team at the University of Bristol.
Ovarian cancer is the 6th most common cancer in women in the UK.
There are around 7,400 cases each year, and out of those with a known stage at diagnosis, almost 6 in 10 are diagnosed at a late stage.
Around 4,100 women die from the disease every year in the UK.
There is no test that reliably picks up ovarian cancer at an early stage, so chemo-prevention could be an important approach to saving lives.
In the study, the team studied genes and the extent to which they inhibit the enzyme HMG-CoA reductase—which is responsible for regulating cholesterol in the body—and is the exact enzyme targeted by statin drugs to reduce cholesterol.
They looked at 63,347 women between the ages of 20 and 100 years old, of whom 22,406 had ovarian cancer.
They also looked at an additional 31,448 women who carried the BRCA1/2 fault, of whom 3,887 had ovarian cancer.
The study used an approach called Mendelian randomization, which involves analyzing the genetic data from thousands of people.
The findings suggest that long-term statin use could be associated with an estimated 40% reduction in ovarian cancer risk in the general population, although the estimate comes from looking at gene variation rather than statins themselves, and the exact mechanism by which these genes are associated with lower ovarian cancer risk is unclear.
The team says statins may protect against the development of ovarian cancer because they’ve been shown to induce apoptosis—one of the body’s ways of getting rid of old, faulty or infected cells—and to stop tumors from growing in laboratory studies.
Another possibility is that statins lower circulating cholesterol, which helps regulate cell growth, though the team suggests that lower circulating cholesterol was not the method by which statins may reduce ovarian cancer risk.
While the study suggests that statins could lower ovarian cancer risk, more research needs to be done specifically looking at their use and impact on women’s risk of developing the disease.
One author of the study is Professor Richard Martin from the University of Bristol.
The study is published in JAMA.
Copyright © 2019 Knowridge Science Report. All rights reserved.
