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Statins are drugs used to lower cholesterol. Your body needs some cholesterol to work properly. But if you have too much in your blood, it can stick to the walls of your arteries, narrowing or even blocking them.
Merck’s TREDAPTIVE clinical study on high-risk CVD patients does not meet primary endpoint

Merck’s TREDAPTIVE clinical study on high-risk CVD patients does not meet primary endpoint

Merck, known outside the United States and Canada as MSD, today announced that the HPS2-THRIVE (Heart Protection Study 2-Treatment of HDL to Reduce the Incidence of Vascular Events) study of TREDAPTIVE(extended-release niacin/laropiprant) did not meet its primary endpoint. [More]
Dyslipidaemia: an interview with Prof. Peter Kokkinos

Dyslipidaemia: an interview with Prof. Peter Kokkinos

Dyslipidemia is defined as abnormal levels of blood lipids (fats) and cholesterol. The most common dyslipidaemias are high blood cholesterol (Total Cholesterol) and triglyceride levels, high levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (‘bad’ cholesterol) and low levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol (‘good’ cholesterol). [More]
Pairing statins with cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors might effectively treat melanomas

Pairing statins with cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors might effectively treat melanomas

A novel approach to identifying potential anticancer drug combinations revealed that pairing cholesterol-reducing drugs called statins with cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors might provide an effective approach to treating intractable melanomas driven by mutations in the NRAS and KRAS gene. [More]

Statins may reduce risk of breast cancer recurrence

Researchers from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center found statins, the commonly used drug to lower cholesterol, improved progression-free survival in patients with inflammatory breast cancer (IBC). [More]

Statins improves progression-free survival in patients with inflammatory breast cancer

Researchers from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center found statins, the commonly used drug to lower cholesterol, improved progression-free survival in patients with inflammatory breast cancer (IBC). [More]
Air quality in cities linked to inflammatory risk in diabetes

Air quality in cities linked to inflammatory risk in diabetes

Exposure to traffic-related air pollutants is associated with a rapid increase in systemic inflammation in patients with diabetes, report Indian researchers. [More]
Phone, letter prompts improve statin uptake

Phone, letter prompts improve statin uptake

Telephoning and writing to individuals who have not filled their new prescription for statin medication significantly improves rates of prescription uptake, show US study results. [More]

Combining statin treatment with better fitness improves survival in people with dyslipidaemia

Taking statins or being even modestly physically fit markedly improves survival in people with dyslipidaemia (abnormal levels of harmful blood fats/cholesterol), according to new research published Online First in The Lancet. But combining statin treatment with better fitness may do more to ward off death than either intervention alone. [More]
Review: Omega-3 fatty acids may still help prevent heart disease

Review: Omega-3 fatty acids may still help prevent heart disease

Literally hundreds of clinical trials, including some that have gained widespread attention, have been done on the possible benefits of omega-3 fatty acids for the prevention of heart disease - producing conflicting results, varied claims, and frustrated consumers unsure what to believe. [More]
Buying mail-order medications may encourage patients to stick their treatments

Buying mail-order medications may encourage patients to stick their treatments

Patients newly prescribed a cholesterol-lowering medication were more likely to pick it up from the pharmacy if they received automated phone and mail reminders, according to a study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine today. [More]
People more likely to take heart medicines in combo pill

People more likely to take heart medicines in combo pill

People are much more likely to take heart medicines if they're combined in one pill, according to a late-breaking clinical trial presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2012. [More]
Treatment with AMG 145 reduces LDL cholesterol

Treatment with AMG 145 reduces LDL cholesterol

Amgen today announced that results from the LAPLACE-TIMI 57 and MENDEL Phase 2 studies evaluating AMG 145 in hypercholesterolemic patients with or without statins, respectively, showed that treatment with AMG 145 resulted in a statistically significant reduction in low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol. [More]
AMG 145 can reduce LDL cholesterol levels by up to 66% after 12 weeks

AMG 145 can reduce LDL cholesterol levels by up to 66% after 12 weeks

For many people with high cholesterol, statins serve as the first line of treatment. However, some patients are unable to effectively reduce their low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL cholesterol) or "bad cholesterol" levels with statins, the most commonly used medication to treat high cholesterol, due to their bodies' inability to tolerate or sufficiently respond to the medicine. [More]

Data from four Phase 2 trials of AMG 145 to be presented at AHA Scientific Sessions 2012

Amgen will present data from four Phase 2 trials of AMG 145, an investigational fully human monoclonal antibody directed against PCSK9, a protein that reduces the liver's ability to remove low density lipoprotein cholesterol, or "bad" cholesterol from the blood, at the upcoming American Heart Association Scientific Sessions 2012. [More]

Study results show ongoing comparison of prescription drug costs between US and UK

In the United States, the cost paid for statins (drugs to lower cholesterol) in people under the age of 65 who have private insurance continues to exceed comparable costs paid by the government in the United Kingdom by more than three fold. [More]

Apolipoprotein E plays a major role in maintaining arterial softness

Arterial stiffening has long been considered a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Keeping arteries soft and supple might reduce disease risk, but the mechanisms of how arteries stave off hardening has remained elusive. [More]

High blood cholesterol far more common than previously recognized

High blood cholesterol, a serious hereditary disease, is far more common than previously recognised and not treated sufficiently. [More]
Cilostazol reduces restenosis after angioplasty in critical limb ischemia

Cilostazol reduces restenosis after angioplasty in critical limb ischemia

The quinolinone derivative cilostazol may be associated with reduced restenosis, reocclusion, and clinically driven target lesion revascularization 3 months after infrapopliteal angioplasty, researchers say. [More]
Protective association between statin use and esophageal cancer

Protective association between statin use and esophageal cancer

Statins, a cholesterol lowering drug may lower the risk of esophageal cancer, especially in patients with Barrett's esophagus, Mayo Clinic researchers report in a study being presented at the American College of Gastroenterology annual meeting. [More]

Statin use may improve overall survival and reduce risk of recurrence in resected NSCLC patients

Patients who have undergone resection for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) may improve their overall survival and reduce the risk of recurrence by taking statins. [More]