Do statins decrease cardiovascular disease at the expense of increasing cancer?
A recent report of an inverse relationship between achieved low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels and cancer incidence has refueled the debate on cholesterol lowering and cancer. This is timely, since aggressive cholesterol lowering with statins is the trend. There are data suggesting that cholesterol lowering increases cancer at the expense of decreasing cardiovascular disease in certain populations, such as the elderly and those treated with immunotherapy for cancer. Furthermore, there may be a relationship between statin dose and cancer. Future statin trials should accurately tract the incidence of new cancers over extended time periods. These issues deserve our attention.
