Statins significantly reduce the likelihood of breast cancer return

Study states: statins halve the risk of recurrence of breast cancer
Breast cancer threatens the health of countless women worldwide. For this reason, medical professionals are looking for new ways and means to prevent the disease or to help people defeat the disease. Researchers now found that so-called statins can prevent the return of breast cancer.

Breast cancer kills more women every year than any other cancer in the world. For this reason, we urgently need more effective therapies and medicines to prevent the onset, spread and return of breast cancer. Researchers found during an investigation that prescribed statins can help prevent the return of breast cancer that has already been eradicated. The physicians published the results of their study in the journal "Breast Cancer Research".

Statins can halve the risk of recurrence of cancer
Up to 80 percent of breast cancer cases are "ER-positive". In these cases, there are more estrogen receptors (ER) than normal breast cells. These are especially sensitive to estrogen. It is estimated that up to 40,000 women are diagnosed with ER-positive breast cancer each year, the authors explain. In some cases, patients do not respond to standard hormone-blocking therapies designed to influence estrogen production. But in the new study, the researchers discovered that certain types of breast cancer use cholesterol to create a molecule that then produces 25-HC.

The so-called 25-HC has the same effect as estrogen, this circumstance could explain the resistance of the cancer to therapies, the doctors speculate. In such patients then statins can be used to lower cholesterol. This halves the likelihood that the disease will return in the next decade, say the experts.

Cancer cells use cholesterol molecule to mimic estrogen
In the course of treatment of so-called ER-positive breast cancer, which is enhanced by estrogen, the cancer is often resistant to standard hormone therapy, explain the physicians. Our research has shown that these cancer cells can use a cholesterol molecule to mimic estrogen. Thus, the disease can continue to grow without estrogen, explains senior researcher Dr. med. Lesley Ann Martin. Testing the tumor for traces of 25-HC or enzymes involved in its formation may help to identify which patients are more likely to develop resistance later, adds the author. Thus, due to this prognosis, a suitable treatment can be initiated.

Cholesterol is an important molecule that helps build and maintain the body's membranes. It also produces a number of hormones. We get cholesterol from our food. But our body also produces its own cholesterol through a process called cholesterol biosynthesis, the researchers add.

Current treatments can be improved by results in efficacy
With laboratory-bred breast cancer cells, the team of scientists under the direction of Drs. Martin describes the processes that cause relapse in women with ER-positive breast cancer while taking aromatase inhibitors. The researchers found that cholesterol biosynthesis enabled the cells to produce "fuel" for the disease. Blocking portions of cholesterol production slows the growth of cancer cells by 30 to 50 percent. The new research provides an important opportunity to improve the effectiveness of today's most widely used treatments, say the experts. (As)