DOI: 10.1097/01.COT.0000305583.97456.b9
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Issn Print: 0276-2234
Publication Date: 2007/12/25
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Excerpt
In a retrospective study of almost 900 patients undergoing high-dose radiation, those taking statins before and during treatment were significantly less likely to relapse five and 10 years later, reported Michael J. Zelefsky, MD, Chief of the Brachytherapy Service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
Other studies have suggested that statins may help to prevent prostate cancer, but Dr. Zelefsky said that he believes this is the first to show that the drugs, when used in conjunction with radiation, can cut the risk of relapse.
Given the widespread use of the cholesterol-lowering agents, the findings are reassuring, he said, while stressing that they need to be replicated in a prospective clinical trial before any firm conclusions can be drawn.
In other comforting news for prostate cancer patients on high-dose radiation, Fox Chase Cancer Center researchers reported that hypofractionated intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), in which higher doses of radiation are given over shorter periods of time, does not lead to more sexual dysfunction than conventionally fractionated IMRT does.
