Are statins onco- suppressive agents for every type of tumor? A systematic review of literature

ABSTRACT

Introduction

Statins, in the role of anti-cancer agents, have been used in many types of cancers with results in some cases promising while, in others, disappointing.

Areas covered

The purpose of this review is to identify and highlight data from literature on the successes or failure of using statins as anti-cancer agents. We asked ourselves the following two questions:

1. Could statins, which are taken mostly to reduce cardiovascular risk, guarantee a lower incidence or a better cancer disease prognosis, concerning local recurrence, metastasis or mortality?

2. Does statins intake (before and/or after cancer diagnosis) improve the prognosis or increase the chemotherapeutic action when combined with other anticancer therapies? For the first question twenty-seven manuscripts have been selected, for the second one, twenty-eight.

Expert opinion

There are data which correlate statins with a possible tumor suppressive action among the following cancers: breast, lung, prostate and head and neck. Lastly, for gastric cancer and colorectal there is no evidence of a correlation. The onco-suppressive efficacy of statins is mainly related to the histopathological and/or molecular characteristics of the tumor cells, which have different characteristics.

KEYWORDS:

• Cancer
• lipophilic statins
• Lovastatin
• oral lipid-lowering agent
• statins

Article highlights

• The tumor-suppressive efficacy of statins is related to a favorable evolution of only some types of tumors.

• It is likely that statins are not onco-suppressive on all tumors.

• The onco-suppressive efficacy of statins is mainly related to the histopathological and/or molecular characteristics of the tumor cells, which have different characteristics from each other.

• Future studies should evaluate the negative role of statins in the metabolism of individual tumor cells.

Declaration of interest

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

Reviewer disclosures

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Author contributions

All authors L Filaferro, F Zaccarelli, GF Niccolini, A Colizza, F Zoccali, M Grasso and M Fusconi contributed to the study conception, design, material preparation, data collection and analysis. The first draft of the manuscript was written by M Fusconi, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. All authors have agreed on the journal to which the article will be submitted. All authors agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Additional information

Funding

This paper was not funded.