Executive Summary

Statin therapy to reduce low-density lipoprotein cholesterol is not associated with an increased risk of cancer, despite previous reports to the contrary, according to a study in the September issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Researchers led by Alawi Alsheikh-Ali, with the Institute for Clinical Research and Health Policy Studies found through a meta-analysis of 15 randomized controlled trials that "a relationship between on-treatment LDL-C levels and incident cancer was also observed in control populations not treated with statins." Therefore, statin-treated patients lower their LDL-C while maintaining similar risk of cancer as non-statin treated patients, according to the study