For breast cancer patients undergoing radiation therapy after surgery, statin drugs may significantly reduce the risk of heart attacks, strokes, heart failure and heart related death, a new study suggests.
Researchers tracked 1,481 women who underwent breast‐conserving surgery followed by a course of radiotherapy, including 442 who had been prescribed cholesterol-lowering statins. The average age in the study was 55 years, and everyone had left-breast early-stage tumors.
At five years, the rate of major adverse heart events was 12.24% in statin users, compared with 31.70% in non-users.
When the researchers compared 360 women taking statins with a closely matched group of 360 who were not, the odds of heart failure, heart attack, stroke or other major adverse cardiovascular event were 66% lower among the statin users, according to a report in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
The greatest effect was seen in users of rosuvastatin, the generic name for AstraZeneca's Crestor, and pravastatin, originally sold under the brand name Pravachol by Bristol Myers Squibb.
The higher a patient's daily statin dose, the lower their risk for the major adverse events, the researchers also found.
While this study cannot prove that statin use completely explains the results, "these findings suggest a potential role for statins in mitigating cardiovascular complications in... survivors of breast cancer undergoing radiotherapy," the researchers concluded.
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