Statins and their roles in cancer

The association of long-term statin use with cancer risk has recently become an interesting topic because of rather conflicting clinical evidence. On the one hand, early animal toxicology studies suggested the carcinogenicity of statins. On the other hand, although several large-scale, randomized clinical trials with secondary endpoints assessing associated cancer risk confirmed the safety of long-term statin use, results concerning the risk of specific cancer types remain inconclusive. To further complicate matters, retrospective studies concluded that the use of statins can actually reduce cancer risk. In addition, several small-scale cancer trials have shown evidence supporting the use of statins as therapeutic anticancer agents. In this review, we will discuss the results of the clinical studies, emphasize their strengths and weaknesses, and evaluate their potential impact on clinical practice. (C) 2005 Prous Science. All rights reserved.