Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs May Also Lower PSA, but Whether They Cut Cancer Risk is Still Not Known
October 30th, 2008 Posted in prostate relatedAccording to researchers in the Duke Prostate Center and the Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center, the popular cholesterol-busting drugs — statins — appear to lower men’s prostate-specific antigen (PSA) values along with their cholesterol levels. But whether the drugs prevent prostate cancer growth or just mask it is not known yet.
Previous studies had shown that men taking statins were less likely to develop advanced forms of prostate cancer but no one had looked at the relationship between the drugs and prostate-specific antigen, or PSA, a biomarker that is correlated with cancer growth and is the most common prostate cancer screening tool. This new study represents a move to understand if and how statins influence prostate biology and whether they are really reducing cancer risk, or simply making PSA a less effective screening tool.
The study was published in the October 28, 2008 issue Journal of the National Cancer Institute.