A cheap and common drug used to lower cholesterol could prevent cancer, according to a new study.
Cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins, could block a pathway involved in the formation of cancer caused by chronic inflammation in the body, according to the research, spearheaded by Mass General Cancer Cancer Center and published in Nature Communications.
“Chronic inflammation is a major cause of cancer worldwide,” senior author Dr. Shawn Demehri, a principal investigator at the Center for Cancer Immunology and Cutaneous Biology Research Center of Massachusetts General Hospital and an associate professor of Dermatology at Harvard Medical School said in a press release.
“We investigated the mechanism by which environmental toxins drive the initiation of cancer-prone chronic inflammation in the skin and pancreas. Furthermore, we examined safe and effective therapies to block this pathway in order to suppress chronic inflammation and its cancer aftermath,” he added.
Chronic inflammation is responsible for around 20% of cancers worldwide, the study authors noted. Over 40 million Americans take statins, according to Yale Medicine. Statins are common and affordable drugs so this study could potentially decrease people’s risk of developing cancer by suppressing chronic inflammation.
The study analyzed human tissue samples, animal models and epidemiological data.
While experimenting on cells, researchers found that cells’ exposure to chemical irritants and allergens activated two pathways which lead to the production of a certain protein that stimulates inflammation of the skin and pancreas. That inflammation can lead to the development of cancer.
Researchers found that a statin called pitavastatin suppressed the activation of the cancer-causing protein by blocking a signaling pathway. They also found that in mice, the statin suppressed inflammation caused by environmental toxins, thereby preventing inflammation-related pancreatic cancers.
They plan to continue to determine other ways in which statins can prevent cancer-causing inflammation.
“Next, we aim to further examine the impact of statins in preventing cancer development in chronic inflammation in liver and gastrointestinal tract and to identify other novel, therapeutic approaches to suppress cancer-prone chronic inflammation,” said Demehri.
