Never Mind

"Statin drugs may lower the risk of colon cancer," shouted headlines in most major newspapers last May. That same month at least three studies unveiled at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology suggested taking cholesterol-lowering statins, which are primarily aimed at curbing heart disease, might also reduce the incidence of breast, prostate and lung cancers.

It will be interesting to see how much play the bad news gets. In the latest edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association, scientists at the University of Connecticut report a pooled analysis of 26 clinical trials involving over 86,000 people taking statins. Their conclusion? "We found that no type of cancer was affected by statin use and no subtype of statin affected the risk of cancer."

Hmmm. I wonder who funded the earlier studies. The UConn docs reported no ties to drug manufacturers.