Reducing cholesterol levels may inhibit breast cancer development, but the long-term use of cholesterol-lowering statin drugs is associated with more than double the risk of both types of breast cancer: invasive ductal carcinoma and invasive lobular carcinoma.
Statin Cholesterol Drugs and Invasive Breast Cancer
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Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.
What does breast cancer do with cholesterol? Here are some of the potential mechanisms by which cholesterol boosts breast cancer growth. Cholesterol is what our body makes estrogen out of. It’s packaged into LDL, which we saw appeared to increase proliferation of breast cancer cells, decrease patient survival, and it’s a major component of lipid rafts.
“[C]ompared with their normal counterparts, cancer cells have higher levels of cholesterol-rich lipid rafts in the[ir] plasma membrane[s], which may be important…[for] cancer cell survival”—as well as serve in human cancer development in terms of tumor migration and invasion.
Elevated levels of these cholesterol-rich lipid rafts have been found in breast cancer cells, and the thought is that by “[r]educing [blood] cholesterol levels may disrupt lipid raft formation and thereby inhibit…breast cancer development.” This suggests cholesterol targeting may be useful as a cancer therapy.
Controlled laboratory experiments have shown that phytosterols in seeds and nuts “at dietary relevant levels” appear to “[inhibit] the growth…of several types of tumor cells including breast cancer cells”—both estrogen-receptor negative and estrogen-receptor positive cancer.
The “[t]herapeutic implications are that plant-based diets rich in phytosterols may offer protection against the development of breast cancer.” Of course, you can’t make a lot of money on pumpkin seeds, so researchers looked at cholesterol-lowering statin drugs.
“Evaluating the safety of statin therapy for women is particularly difficult; however, little research has explicitly proceeded from a gender-based perspective.” Some petri dish work looked promising, but population studies have shown mixed results. Some studies showed that women on statins had decreased breast cancer risk, some showed increased risk, and most showed no association. But these were all relatively short-term studies. So-called “long-term” statin use was defined as mostly just like three to five years. Breast cancer can take decades to grow.
The one study that looked at ten or more years of statin use only included 62 cases. “Given the increase in statin use over the past few decades,” and the fact that they’re commonly prescribed to be taken every day for the rest of your life, “the studies published to date have had limited ability to evaluate the impact of long durations of…use.” And we better figure this out. About one in four women over 45 in this country are on these drugs. But, that was the only data we had—until now.
Thousands of breast cancer cases included, and “long-term statin users”—women taking statins for ten years or more, “had more than double the risk of both types” of breast cancer: invasive ductal carcinoma and invasive lobular carcinoma.
Now, the #1 killer of women is heart disease, not breast cancer, so, we still need to bring down cholesterol levels. But might there be a way to get the benefits without the risks? Plant-based diets have been shown to lower LDL cholesterol “by over 30%” within just a couple weeks, equivalent to most of the standard cholesterol-lowering statin drugs—without potential side effects, such as increased breast cancer risk.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- AB Awad, SL Barta, CS Fink, PG Bradford. Beta-Sitosterol enhances tamoxifen effectiveness on breast cancer cells by affecting ceramide metabolism. Mol Nutr Food Res. 2008 52(4):419 – 426.
- K Undela, V Srikanth, D Bansal. Statin use and risk of breast cancer: A meta-analysis of observational studies. Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2012 135(1):261 – 269.
- JA McDougall, KE Malone, JR Daling, KL Cushing-Haugen, PL Porter, CI Li. Long-term statin use and risk of ductal and lobular breast cancer among women 55 to 74 years of age. Cancer Epidemiol.
- CM Kitahara, AB de González, ND Freedman, R Huxley, Y Mok, SH Jee, JM Samet. Total cholesterol and cancer risk in a large prospective study in Korea. J Clin Oncol. 2011 29(12):1592 – 1598.
- YC Li, MJ Park, SK Ye, CW Kim, YN Kim. Elevated levels of cholesterol-rich lipid rafts in cancer cells are correlated with apoptosis sensitivity induced by cholesterol-depleting agents. Am J Pathol. 2006 168(4):1107 – 18; - quiz - 1404 – 5.
- C Danilo, PG Frank. Cholesterol and breast cancer development. Current Opinion in Pharmacology. 2012 12(6):677–682.
- AS Kumar, LJ Esserman. Statins: Health-promoting agents show promise for breast cancer prevention. Clin Breast Cancer. 2005 6(5):455 – 459.
- DJA Jenkins, CWC Kendall, A Marchie, AL Jenkins, PW Connelly, PJH Jones, V Vuksan. The Garden of Eden--plant based diets, the genetic drive to conserve cholesterol and its implications for heart disease in the 21st century. Comp Biochem Physiol, Part A Mol Integr Physiol. 2003 136(1):141 – 151.
- H Rosenberg, D Allard. Women and statin use: a women's health advocacy perspective. Scand Cardiovasc J. 2008 Aug;42(4):268-73.
Images thanks to The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, irrational_cat and formalfallacy @ Dublin (Victor) via flickr
Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.
What does breast cancer do with cholesterol? Here are some of the potential mechanisms by which cholesterol boosts breast cancer growth. Cholesterol is what our body makes estrogen out of. It’s packaged into LDL, which we saw appeared to increase proliferation of breast cancer cells, decrease patient survival, and it’s a major component of lipid rafts.
“[C]ompared with their normal counterparts, cancer cells have higher levels of cholesterol-rich lipid rafts in the[ir] plasma membrane[s], which may be important…[for] cancer cell survival”—as well as serve in human cancer development in terms of tumor migration and invasion.
Elevated levels of these cholesterol-rich lipid rafts have been found in breast cancer cells, and the thought is that by “[r]educing [blood] cholesterol levels may disrupt lipid raft formation and thereby inhibit…breast cancer development.” This suggests cholesterol targeting may be useful as a cancer therapy.
Controlled laboratory experiments have shown that phytosterols in seeds and nuts “at dietary relevant levels” appear to “[inhibit] the growth…of several types of tumor cells including breast cancer cells”—both estrogen-receptor negative and estrogen-receptor positive cancer.
The “[t]herapeutic implications are that plant-based diets rich in phytosterols may offer protection against the development of breast cancer.” Of course, you can’t make a lot of money on pumpkin seeds, so researchers looked at cholesterol-lowering statin drugs.
“Evaluating the safety of statin therapy for women is particularly difficult; however, little research has explicitly proceeded from a gender-based perspective.” Some petri dish work looked promising, but population studies have shown mixed results. Some studies showed that women on statins had decreased breast cancer risk, some showed increased risk, and most showed no association. But these were all relatively short-term studies. So-called “long-term” statin use was defined as mostly just like three to five years. Breast cancer can take decades to grow.
The one study that looked at ten or more years of statin use only included 62 cases. “Given the increase in statin use over the past few decades,” and the fact that they’re commonly prescribed to be taken every day for the rest of your life, “the studies published to date have had limited ability to evaluate the impact of long durations of…use.” And we better figure this out. About one in four women over 45 in this country are on these drugs. But, that was the only data we had—until now.
Thousands of breast cancer cases included, and “long-term statin users”—women taking statins for ten years or more, “had more than double the risk of both types” of breast cancer: invasive ductal carcinoma and invasive lobular carcinoma.
Now, the #1 killer of women is heart disease, not breast cancer, so, we still need to bring down cholesterol levels. But might there be a way to get the benefits without the risks? Plant-based diets have been shown to lower LDL cholesterol “by over 30%” within just a couple weeks, equivalent to most of the standard cholesterol-lowering statin drugs—without potential side effects, such as increased breast cancer risk.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- AB Awad, SL Barta, CS Fink, PG Bradford. Beta-Sitosterol enhances tamoxifen effectiveness on breast cancer cells by affecting ceramide metabolism. Mol Nutr Food Res. 2008 52(4):419 – 426.
- K Undela, V Srikanth, D Bansal. Statin use and risk of breast cancer: A meta-analysis of observational studies. Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2012 135(1):261 – 269.
- JA McDougall, KE Malone, JR Daling, KL Cushing-Haugen, PL Porter, CI Li. Long-term statin use and risk of ductal and lobular breast cancer among women 55 to 74 years of age. Cancer Epidemiol.
- CM Kitahara, AB de González, ND Freedman, R Huxley, Y Mok, SH Jee, JM Samet. Total cholesterol and cancer risk in a large prospective study in Korea. J Clin Oncol. 2011 29(12):1592 – 1598.
- YC Li, MJ Park, SK Ye, CW Kim, YN Kim. Elevated levels of cholesterol-rich lipid rafts in cancer cells are correlated with apoptosis sensitivity induced by cholesterol-depleting agents. Am J Pathol. 2006 168(4):1107 – 18; - quiz - 1404 – 5.
- C Danilo, PG Frank. Cholesterol and breast cancer development. Current Opinion in Pharmacology. 2012 12(6):677–682.
- AS Kumar, LJ Esserman. Statins: Health-promoting agents show promise for breast cancer prevention. Clin Breast Cancer. 2005 6(5):455 – 459.
- DJA Jenkins, CWC Kendall, A Marchie, AL Jenkins, PW Connelly, PJH Jones, V Vuksan. The Garden of Eden--plant based diets, the genetic drive to conserve cholesterol and its implications for heart disease in the 21st century. Comp Biochem Physiol, Part A Mol Integr Physiol. 2003 136(1):141 – 151.
- H Rosenberg, D Allard. Women and statin use: a women's health advocacy perspective. Scand Cardiovasc J. 2008 Aug;42(4):268-73.
Images thanks to The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, irrational_cat and formalfallacy @ Dublin (Victor) via flickr
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Title
Statin Cholesterol Drugs and Invasive Breast Cancer
LicenseCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Content URLDoctor's Note
If you missed the “prequel” video, you might be confused about the role cholesterol plays in breast cancer risk; see Cholesterol Feeds Breast Cancer Cells.
Alhough as drugs go, statins are remarkably safe, they can present rare but serious side effects in both men and women.
How can we lower cholesterol without drugs? See Heart Attacks & Cholesterol: Purely a Question of Diet. We can lower our cholesterol by lowering our intake of three things: Trans Fat, Saturated Fat, & Cholesterol: Tolerable Upper Intake of Zero. Where are trans fats found? Trans Fat In Meat & Dairy. Where is cholesterol found? Predominantly eggs: Eggs & Cholesterol: Patently False & Misleading Claims. There are also some foods adept at lowering cholesterol levels:
- Nuts and Bolts of Cholesterol Lowering
- How Fiber Lowers Cholesterol
- How Phytosterols Lower Cholesterol
- Dried Apples, Dates, Figs, or Prunes for Cholesterol?
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