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

Abstract

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.