Lowering cholesterol with statin drugs could help prevent breast cancer, a study of more than 600,000 [b]British[/b] women has found. [s]The Guardian[/s] reports that the research is still at an early stage and the findings do not prove that cholesterol helps trigger breast cancer. But if future work demonstrates a causal link it opens up the possibility of using cheap cholesterol-lowering statins to reduce women's risk of the disease. Cardiologist Rahul Potluri, from the [b]University of Aston[/b], said in the report: ‘We have a general principle that obesity is linked to breast cancer and a study in mice suggested that this may be because of cholesterol.’ Potluri, who is to present his findings at a [b]European Society of Cardiology[/b] meeting in [b]Barcelona[/b] in August/September said: ‘Caution is needed when interpreting our results because while we had a large study population, our analysis was retrospective and observational with inherent limitations. That said, the findings are exciting and further research in this field may have a big impact on patients several years down the line.’
[link url=http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jul/04/statins-reduce-breast-cancer-risk]Full report in The Guardian[/link]