Women taking the cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins, such as Lipitor or Mevacor, seem to have sharply lower chances of developing breast cancer, according to a study of U.S. female veterans.

Dr. Vikas Khurana from Louisiana State University Health Science Center in Shreveport and colleagues compared statin use among 548 women with a history of breast cancer and close to 40,000 women without breast cancer. The average age of the women was 58 years and a total of 4,771 (about 12 percent) were statin users.

An analysis factoring in age, tobacco and alcohol use, and diabetes showed that statin use was associated with a 51 percent reduced risk of breast cancer, Khurana reported at a press briefing on advances in cancer prevention at the meeting here of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

Dr. Robert J Mayer from Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston who moderated the briefing said: “This study is further evidence that statins have chemopreventive potential.”

“Does this mean we should be giving statins to everyone? The answer is no. We are not yet ready for that,” Khurana said. “However, this study takes us one step further toward planning a ... trial which could give us that answer,” he added.

Khurana did say that currently there are “some data to suggest that patients with lipid abnormalities and are at high risk for cancer might be preferably put on a statin as compared to other lipid-lower agents, for its presumed cancer prevention action.”

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