In the largest and most reliable study of its type, the University of Oxford (UK) and the University of Sydney (Australia) have demonstrated that statin therapy is not a cause of increased cancer rates and deaths. The conclusions of this study will reassure the millions of people worldwide who are taking statins to lower cholesterol levels, and clarifies earlier research that had raised concerns of a causal link.
The Cholesterol Treatment Trialists' Collaboration examined data from 170,000 people captured from 26 randomised and controlled trials. Of these people, over 10,000 of them developed cancer and over 3,500 died from cancer. Analysis determined that cancer rates and deaths were exactly the same in people taking statin therapy as those being given a placebo tablet. The study was funded by the UK Medical Research Council, the British Heart Foundation and the National Health and Medical Research Council (Australia), and involved collaborators from all over the world.
Doctor Jonathan Emberson, University of Oxford British Heart Foundation Senior Statistician, notes, "Statin therapy had no adverse effect on cancer at any site or in any group of individuals, irrespective of their cholesterol levels. There was also no association of cancer with statin dose or duration."
Due to its large size, the study was able to refute previous suggestions that statin therapy might cause particular types of cancer, such as breast cancer, or that it might cause cancer in particular groups of people. Previous research into this topic had been based on relatively small trials or studies that could not exclude the effect of other factors. By contrast, this analysis of all the randomised trials provides the most reliable evidence about the benefits and risks of statin therapy.