© Oxford University Press 2006.
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In Brief
Statins Not Associated With Reduced Cancer Risk, Meta-Analysis ShowsCommon cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins do not reduce the incidence of cancer or cancer related deaths, according to a new meta-analysis.
Some epidemiologic studies have suggested an association between statin use and reduced cancer risk. C. Michael White, Pharm.D., from the University of Connecticut and Hartford Hospital in Hartford, and colleagues performed a meta-analysis of 27 randomized controlled trials of statins conducted up through July 2005 that reported outcomes for cancer incidence or cancer death. The authors examined primarily studies in which the statins used included simvastatin and pravastatin.
They found that statins did not reduce the risk of cancer or decrease cancer mortality in breast, colon, gastrointestinal, prostate, respiratory, or skin cancers. "We could find no type of cancer that statins benefited or subtype of statin that reduced the risk of cancer," the authors wrote.
The study was published in the January 4 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
See also Article, Vol. 98, No. 1, p. 69, "Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs and Colorectal Cancer Incidence in a Large United States Cohort," and Editorial, p. 4, "Stats on Statins: Anything but Static."
2006 NIH, NCI Budget Approved
Last month, President Bush signed the the Labor–Health and Human Services appropriations bill, a $602 billion measure that includes $28.6 billion for the National Institutes of Health, an increase of 1% ($153 million) over last year's funding level.
The increase is $107.7 million more than the President's request for NIH. The appropriations bill passed by a small majority (215–213) in the House of Representatives on December 15. The National Cancer Institute was awarded $4.84 billion, $24 million less than its 2005 appropriation.
Study Suggests microRNA Associated With Thyroid Cancer
Alterations in tiny pieces of genetic material called microRNA (miRNA) are associated with an increased risk of developing papillary thyroid cancer, according to a new study.
No specific gene mutations are associated with papillary thyroid cancer. Recent research suggests that miRNAs can alter messenger RNA and prevent it from properly producing a protein.
Albert de la Chapelle, M.D., Ph.D., of Ohio State University, and colleagues studied miRNA expression in samples of cancerous tissue from 15 patients with papillary thyroid cancer and compared them with normal tissue outside the tumors. They found 23 altered miRNAs in cancerous tissue, three of which—miR-146, miR-221, and miR-222—showed high levels of overexpression in cancerous tissue compared with normal tissue. Those three miRNAs combined with two others—miR-21 and miR-181a—could be used to predict the presence of cancerous tissue, the authors asserted. The authors suggest that miRNAs may be tumor specific: Certain overexpression could potentially lead to specific tumor growth.
The study was published in the December 19 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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