Statins do not prolong lung cancer patient survival: study

Statins work by lowering cholesterol levels in patients and are usually prescribed by doctors to help prevent heart attacks or strokes.

Researchers studied about 846 patients from 91 hospitals in the UK. Patients were randomly selected to receive either the statin or a placebo alongside their usual chemotherapy treatment, and were monitored over two years.

The results showed that, although there were no adverse effects from taking statins, there were no advantages either.

"It's becoming increasingly common for patients with increased cholesterol to take statins and many cancer patients will be or have been prescribed these drugs entirely separately from their cancer treatment," said Michael Seckl, professor at Imperial College London. There is no reason for people to stop taking statins to manage their cholesterol, but it is extremely unlikely, for patients with small cell lung cancer, that taking statins will make any difference to their cancer treatment outcome, the researchers said.

The study was published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology