Statins may slash the risk of developing more than 20 cancers, as well as cutting deaths from heart disease, a study shows.
The risk of major cancers, including breast, prostate and cervical, is halved in patients taking the cholestoral-lowering pills.
Researchers hailed the finding as an important breakthrough in combating the scourge of cancer.
In the study, academics in China used a British database containing up to 15 years of health information on nearly 400,000 patients to arrive at their groundbreaking conclusions.
They say lipid [fatty compound] lowering drugs – mainly statins –may have several anti-cancer effects, including reducing inflammation and preventing malignant cells from growing and multiplying.
The researchers said: “We found that lipid-lowering drugs, particularly statins, were associated with decreased risk of 21 types of cancers.
“It may be a promising strategy to consider repurposing these drugs for cancer prevention.
“Lipid-lowering drugs protect from cancer incidence, suggesting the possible cancer prevention effects in the general population.”
But experts insist further investigation is needed following the study, which appeared in the journal iScience.
The researchers used data from the UK Biobank, which has been collecting health and other information on 500,000 people since 2006.
The team identified 383,784 people for the study, including 114,451 new users of lipid-lowering drugs.
Information on the men and women, including any cancer diagnosis and the date when patients were prescribed lipid-lowering drugs, was tracked for an average of 12.8 years.
The results show that new users of statins had a lower risk of leukaemia, lymphoma, multiple myeloma, melanoma, prostate, ovarian, uterus, cervical, breast, lung, liver, oesophagus, gastric, intestinal, colorectal, skin, bladder, kidney, thyroid, pancreatic and brain cancers, with risk reductions for individual cancers ranging from 38 to 66 per cent.
Using lipid-lowering drugs was also associated with a 70 per cent reduced risk of dying from cancer in a time frame, compared to non-users.
The researchers from Shandong University Hospital and other centres in China said: `Lipid-lowering drugs may have a preventive effect on cancer by mitigating chronic inflammation, a crucial factor in the development of many malignancies.’
Some eight million UK adults take lipid-lowering drugs such as statins.
First used in the UK in the 1980s, statins cut fatty deposits in arteries and have been a game-changer in tackling cardiovascular diseases.
Previous research on statins and individual cancers has been mixed, with some showing a positive and others a negative effect.
The new study is observational and while the team showed links between statins and a reduced risk of cancer, it was not designed to establish whether the medication was responsible for the reduction.
Jayant Vaidya, professor of surgery and oncology at University College London, said: “More research is needed. The lower risk found was independent of length of statin use, so the association may not be a causal one.
“Regardless, the cardiovascular benefits are reason enough for discussing their use jointly between a doctor and patients.”