In a new study of middle-aged New Jersey men, taking cholesterol-lowering drugs was linked to a lower chance of dying from prostate cancer.
The findings don't prove that the drugs, called statins, ward off aggressive cancer. But they jibe with previous studies suggesting that getting cholesterol levels under control might help reduce the risk of life-threatening disease, researchers said.
The researchers found that men who died of prostate cancer were half as likely to have taken a statin at any time, and for any duration, than men in the "control" group.
Dr. Stephen Marcella, from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey said "I would not tell a person if they don't have a risk of heart disease, (if) they don't have hypertension...to take a statin just to prevent lethal prostate cancer."
The evidence that's effective, he said, just isn't there yet.
And even if statins do turn out to help prevent fatal prostate cancer, researchers said, previous studies have suggested they don't lower a man's risk of getting less aggressive forms of the disease.
Read the Reuters report here:
Statins tied to lower risk of fatal prostate cancer
