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Statins and other fat-busting drugs could cut prostate cancer risk

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By Gwyn Wright via SWNS

Statins and other fat-busting drugs could cut men’s risk of developing prostate cancer, according to a new study.

Researchers have found a potential link between prostate cancer risk and genes which cause men to carry high levels of fatty acid lipoprotein A, which causes cholesterol, in their blood.

They say statins and other drugs that cut the risk from lipoprotein A could be developed or repurposed to reduce men’s risk from the disease.

Bad habits such as smoking and eating too much are associated with higher prostate cancer risk, according to the researchers.

Other factors which make men more likely to develop the illness, such as old age or being of African descent, cannot be changed but lipid-lowering drugs such as statins and fibrates could cut the risk of developing the disease.

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For the study, the researchers looked at the links between prostate cancer risk and several fatty acids in the blood including lipoprotein A.

They used two huge data sets, UK Biobank and the PRACTICAL consortium, to analyze hundreds of thousands of people’s genes and prostate cancer risk.

They looked at differences in people’s DNA that are associated with different amounts of the fatty acids in blood and then probed whether these genetic differences were linked to a higher prostate cancer risk.

Genes that are linked with lipoprotein A were associated with a higher risk of prostate cancer, including advanced and early-onset prostate cancer.

All the other fatty acids were not associated with a higher blood cancer risk.

Lead study author Anna Ioannidou of Imperial College London said: “These findings suggest the possibility that lipoprotein A-lowering drugs could be developed or repurposed to lower risk of prostate cancer for some individuals.

“More research will be needed to confirm the associations observed in this study and to clarify the underlying biological mechanisms.

“Our study suggests that individuals with higher lipoprotein A blood levels, which is a protein that transports cholesterol in the blood, may have a greater risk of developing prostate cancer.”

The findings were published in the journal PLOS Medicine. The research was supported by Cancer Research UK.

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