LOS ANGELES — The use of statins—but not other lipid-lowering drugs—was associated with a substantial decrease in the incidence of prostate cancer in a large study of Finnish men, according to a poster presentation by Teemu Murtola at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research.
In a group of 23,320 men followed for up to 10 years in the Finnish Prostate Cancer Screening Trial, users of statins had a 4% incidence of prostate cancer, whereas non- users had an 8% incidence, a significant difference, said Mr. Murtola and his colleagues, of the University of Tampere (Finland).
The protective effect of statins was dose dependent. In statin users, men in the lowest quartile of total cumulative dose had a 6.2% incidence, whereas men in the highest quartile had a 1.8% incidence. The trend was statistically significant. Statin use was associated with significantly lower incidences of all categories of prostate cancer stages and grades. The greatest differences in incidence were observed for T2 (2.5% vs. 0.9%) and T3 cancers (0.6% vs. 0.2%).
Use of other cholesterol-lowering drugs, such as fibrates and resins, showed no significant association with prostate cancer incidence, stage, or grade. All categories of cholesterol-lowering drugs, including statins, resulted in significant decreases in median prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels and median free/total PSA ratios.
The effect of cholesterol-lowering medications on PSA levels was most likely due to a metabolic factor common to cholesterol drug users, such as obesity.