Women with advanced ovarian cancer lived longer if they happened to be taking statin drugs in addition to their cancer treatment, a new study finds.
Researchers from Ceders-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles reviewed registry information on 1,510 Medicare-age women and found that those taking statins survived longer on average than patients not on cholesterol lowering drugs.
The benefit was highest in women taking moderate-to-high doses of the drugs and the improvement was limited to those taking a certain type of statin known as a “lipophilic” agent, with examples being atorvastatin (Lipitor), lovastatin (Mevacor), or simvastatin (Zocor), the report in
MedPage Today noted.
Statin users had a median overall survival rate of 32.2 months versus 28.7 months for non-users. Patients with stage III disease had a greater survival benefit with statin use and women on moderate-dose therapy fared best, with those on high-dose rates coming in second. Patients on low-dose statin therapy had survival similar to that of nonusers, the report said.
These results are consistent with previous studies that have looked at the effect of statin therapy on ovarian cancer, and should be used as a basis for future work, the researchers said of their study, which was presented at the Society of Gynecological Oncology Meeting in San Diego.