Statins are a common class of drugs prescribed to patients with high cholesterol who are at risk of cardiovascular disease. Since ADT can increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, one might expect statins to benefit prostate cancer patients who are on ADT. Indeed, we have reported this previously on this blog.
But are all statins the same?
A large retrospective study out of Taiwan now reports that some statins are better than others for patients on ADT. Specifically, the following four show a stronger reduction in mortality than several others:
atorvastatin (Lipitor),
pravastatin (Pravachol),
rosuvastatin (Crestor),
pitavastatin (Livalo).
This conclusion is based on data from over 5700 patients who had received only ADT as their cancer treatment. One caveat of this study is that 95% of patients were of Han Chinese ethnicity. Thus it will be worth knowing whether the same statins are equally beneficial for patients of other ethnicities.
To read the study abstract, please see:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30827745
Wu SY, Fang SC, Shih HJ, Wen YC, Shao YJ. (2019). Mortality associated with statins in men with advanced prostate cancer treated with androgen deprivation therapy. Eur J Cancer. 2019 Feb 28. pii: S0959-8049(19)30047-4. [Epub ahead of print].