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Medical Forum / Diseases and Disorders / Prostate Cancer / October 2006Dr. Mercola on statin-induced cancer
Is the ubiquitous Dr. Joseph Mercola reliable? His website and books cover a LOT of ground, but that in itself means nothing. I ask because his site prints this: "Cancer In every study with rodents to date, statins have caused cancer.25 Why have we not seen such a dramatic correlation in human studies? Because cancer takes a long time to develop and most of the statin trials do not go on longer than two or three years. Still, in one trial, the CARE trial, breast cancer rates of those taking a statin went up 1500 percent.26 In the Heart Protection Study, non-melanoma skin cancer occurred in 243 patients treated with simvastatin compared with 202 cases in the control group.27 Manufacturers of statin drugs have recognized the fact that statins depress the immune system, an effect that can lead to cancer and infectious disease, recommending statin use for inflammatory arthritis and as an immune suppressor for transplant patients.28" The statement is from http://www.mercola.com/2004/jul/24/statin_drugs.htm , and the references in that blurb are: 25. Newman TB, Hulley SB. JAMA 1996;27:55-60 26. Sacks FM and others. N Eng J Med 1996;385;1001-1009. 27. Heart Protection Study Collaborative Group. Lancet 2002;360:7-22. 28. Leung BP and others. J Immunol. Feb 2003 170(3);1524-30; Palinski W. Nature Medicine Dec 2000 6;1311-1312. I've not chased those references down because I've quit statins due to my extreme muscle pain and increasing evidence that it's endemic with athletes on statins. But maybe all of us on or considering statins should learn more about its immune system implications to us and our children, if any of this is valid. I.P. >Is the ubiquitous Dr. Joseph Mercola reliable? IMHO not. His web site could be entertaining reading and may have some useful stuff, but you'd better double-check everything from relilable sources, for example by doing your own Medline searches. >His website and books >cover a LOT of ground, but that in itself means nothing. I ask because [quoted text clipped - 29 lines] >should learn more about its immune system implications to us and our >children, if any of this is valid. I don't use statins and I agree that they have their adverse effects and even potential dangers, but I don't think that cancer is one of them. If anything, statins seem to slightly be protective against cancer. I became interested in statins' potential anti-cancer effects, when I five years ago read the news article Lovastatin Holds Promise For Treatment In Head And Neck, Cervical Cancers <http://www.docguide.com/dg.nsf/PrintPrint/5E219DF780F0C2E885256AF700538FA5> <http://www.pslgroup.com/dg/20C746.htm> Here some Medline articles about statins and cancer, judge yourself: Campbell MJ, Esserman LJ, Zhou Y, Shoemaker M, Lobo M, Borman E, Baehner F, Kumar AS, Adduci K, Marx C, Petricoin EF, Liotta LA, Winters M, Benz S, Benz CC. Breast cancer growth prevention by statins. Cancer Res. 2006 Sep 1;66(17):8707-14. PMID: 16951186 [PubMed - in process] <http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/66/17/8707> Friis S, Olsen JH. Statin use and cancer risk: an epidemiologic review. Cancer Invest. 2006 Jun-Jul;24(4):413-24. Review. PMID: 16777695 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=Abstra ctPlus&list_uids=16777695> Hindler K, Cleeland CS, Rivera E, Collard CD. The role of statins in cancer therapy. Oncologist. 2006 Mar;11(3):306-15. Review. PMID: 16549815 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] <http://theoncologist.alphamedpress.org/cgi/content/full/11/3/306> Bonovas S, Filioussi K, Tsavaris N, Sitaras NM. Use of statins and breast cancer: a meta-analysis of seven randomized clinical trials and nine observational studies. J Clin Oncol. 2005 Dec 1;23(34):8606-12. Epub 2005 Oct 31. PMID: 16260694 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] <http://www.jco.org/cgi/content/abstract/23/34/8606> Demierre MF, Higgins PD, Gruber SB, Hawk E, Lippman SM. Statins and cancer prevention. Nat Rev Cancer. 2005 Dec;5(12):930-42. Review. PMID: 16341084 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] <http://www.nature.com/nrc/journal/v5/n12/abs/nrc1751.html> Friis S, Poulsen AH, Johnsen SP, McLaughlin JK, Fryzek JP, Dalton SO, Sorensen HT, Olsen JH. Cancer risk among statin users: a population-based cohort study. Int J Cancer. 2005 Apr 20;114(4):643-7. PMID: 15578694 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] <http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/109801654/HTMLSTART> Katz MS. Therapy insight: Potential of statins for cancer chemoprevention and therapy. Nat Clin Pract Oncol. 2005 Feb;2(2):82-9. Review. PMID: 16264880 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?itool=abstractplus&db=pubmed&cmd=R etrieve&dopt=abstractplus&list_uids=16264880> Graaf MR, Richel DJ, van Noorden CJ, Guchelaar HJ. Effects of statins and farnesyltransferase inhibitors on the development and progression of cancer. Cancer Treat Rev. 2004 Nov;30(7):609-41. Review. PMID: 15531395 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?itool=abstractplus&db=pubmed&cmd=R etrieve&dopt=abstractplus&list_uids=15531395> Jakobisiak M, Golab J. Potential antitumor effects of statins (Review). Int J Oncol. 2003 Oct;23(4):1055-69. Review. PMID: 12963986 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?itool=abstractplus&db=pubmed&cmd=R etrieve&dopt=abstractplus&list_uids=12963986> Chan KK, Oza AM, Siu LL. The statins as anticancer agents. Clin Cancer Res. 2003 Jan;9(1):10-9. Review. PMID: 12538446 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] <http://clincancerres.aacrjournals.org/cgi/content/full/9/1/10> Wong WW, Dimitroulakos J, Minden MD, Penn LZ. HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors and the malignant cell: the statin family of drugs as triggers of tumor-specific apoptosis. Leukemia 2002 Apr;16(4):508-19 <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=1 1960327&dopt=Abstract> Weis M, Heeschen C, Glassford AJ, Cooke JP. Statins have biphasic effects on angiogenesis. Circulation. 2002 Feb 12;105(6):739-45. PMID: 11839631 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=1 1839631&dopt=Abstract> Dimitroulakos J, Ye LY, Benzaquen M, Moore MJ, Kamel-Reid S, Freedman MH, Yeger H, Penn LZ. Differential sensitivity of various pediatric cancers and squamous cell carcinomas to lovastatin-induced apoptosis: therapeutic implications. Clin Cancer Res. 2001 Jan;7(1):158-67. <http://clincancerres.aacrjournals.org/cgi/content/full/7/1/158> Statins' anti-cancer effects seem to be synergistic with COX-2 inhibitors: Feleszko W, Jalili A, Olszewska D, Mlynarczuk I, Grzela T, Giermasz A, Jakobisiak M. Synergistic interaction between highly specific cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitor, MF-tricyclic and lovastatin in murine colorectal cancer cell lines. Oncol Rep. 2002 Jul-Aug;9(4):879-85. PMID: 12066226 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=1 2066226&dopt=Abstract> Swamy MV, Cooma I, Reddy BS, Rao CV. Lamin B, caspase-3 activity, and apoptosis induction by a combination of HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor and COX-2 inhibitors: a novel approach in developing effective chemopreventive regimens. Int J Oncol. 2002 Apr;20(4):753-9. PMID: 11894121 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=1 1894121&dopt=Abstract> Agarwal B, Rao CV, Bhendwal S, Ramey WR, Shirin H, Reddy BS, Holt PR. Lovastatin augments sulindac-induced apoptosis in colon cancer cells and potentiates chemopreventive effects of sulindac. Gastroenterology. 1999 Oct;117(4):838-47. PMID: 10500066 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=1 0500066&dopt=Abstract>  SignatureMatti Narkia >>Is the ubiquitous Dr. Joseph Mercola reliable? > [quoted text clipped - 48 lines] > >Here some Medline articles about statins and cancer, judge yourself: Here two additional articles: Dulak J, Jozkowicz A. Anti-angiogenic and anti-inflammatory effects of statins: relevance to anti-cancer therapy. Curr Cancer Drug Targets. 2005 Dec;5(8):579-94. Review. PMID: 16375664 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] <http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pubmed&pubmedid=16375664> Fritz G. HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors (statins) as anticancer drugs (review). Int J Oncol. 2005 Nov;27(5):1401-9. Review. PMID: 16211237 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=Abstra ctPlus&list_uids=16211237> SignatureMatti Narkia More in response to Mike Freely (Mike is his true first name) regarding statins. Give it up. Once Mike takes a position, well-founded or not, it is impossible to educate him. And if you try you are, according to him, a "lying bastard." Regards, Steve J Epitaph for a wasted life: "He lived beneath the moon And slept beneath the sun. He lived a life of going to do And died with nothing done." -- Anonymous > More in response to Mike Freely (Mike is his true first name) regarding > statins. Steve, you have every right to disagree with I.P. (or me, or anyone else on this NG). But I don't understand your insistance on trying to disclose the name of someone who clearly wants to protect his identity. One reason this newsgroup succeeds is that all of us are able to participate freely. For some men, disclosure (to friends, employers, clients, etc.) that they have prostate cancer is uncomfortable or even financially risky. Or they just may feel it is a private matter, that they disclose to a few but don't to others. Newcomers to the NG who prefer to remain anonymous could be scared off by your detective work, and that would be a shame. Blast I.P. as opinionated and stubborn. Criticize me as foolishly resistant to active treatment. That's fair game. But unless I.P. Freely is the nom-de-cancer of Dr. Patrick Walsh, I don't give a damn what his real name is. And I don't understand why you do. Alex On October 9, Alex tried to chide me: > Steve, you have every right to disagree with I.P. (or me, or anyone else on > this NG). But I don't understand your insistance on trying to disclose the > name of someone who clearly wants to protect his identity. > Mike himself disclosed his name right here several weeks ago. The reason I use it is that I know that it annoys him. He called me a lying bastard. I think that my little game is nowhere near as reprehensible as his attempts to degrade me. What short memories some of us have. Regards, Steve J Epitaph for a wasted life: "He lived beneath the moon And slept beneath the sun. He lived a life of going to do And died with nothing done." -- Anonymous > On October 9, Alex tried to chide me: >> Steve, you have every right to disagree with I.P. (or me, or anyone else [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > > The reason I use it is that I know that it annoys him. And why is that important and/or useful in a cancer forum? > "Steve Jordan"wrote. >> On October 9, Alex tried to chide me: [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] >>> >> Mike himself disclosed his name right here several weeks ago. Sure did, but only because he begged me to and as a gesture of faith towards him (before I realized that was folly) and with yet another reiteration of why I need to remain anonymous. He's apparently continued to betray that misplaced trust. It hasn't occurred to him that I may have chosen "Mike" because it's the most common first name in our language. >> The reason I use it is that I know that it annoys him. He apparently doesn't believe that he is permanently blocked from my computer. Only when I hoped he had some remaining decency were my PLONKS of him temporary. Now all I see of him is what you guys quote when chastising his childish behavior, which reinforces my decision to filter him and which I hope will fade from your screens as well if enough of you encourage him to grow up. I wonder how much success J has had in keeping Steve's baseless personal attacks off the forum she moderates. > And why is that important and/or useful in a cancer forum? It may be valuable to US because it exhibits one of the sad emotional SEs of ADT for others to be aware of? I guess that begs the question of whether he behaved this way prior to ADT. I.P. On October 10, Mike Freely replied to Claude's quote of me: >> "Steve Jordan"wrote. >>> Mike himself disclosed his name right here several weeks ago. Mike said: > Sure did, but only because he begged me to (snip) That is a falsehood. (snip) > It hasn't occurred to him that I may have chosen "Mike" because it's > the most common first name in our language. If so, that was another falsehood, then. >>> The reason I use it is that I know that it annoys him. The rest of Mike's harangue is unworthy of response. Remember, kids, he called me a lying bastard. He has earned anything I throw at him. Regards, Steve J Epitaph for a wasted life: "He lived beneath the moon And slept beneath the sun. He lived a life of going to do And died with nothing done." -- Anonymous >> More in response to Mike Freely (Mike is his true first name) regarding >> statins. > > Steve, you have every right to disagree with I.P. (or me, or anyone else > on this NG). But I don't understand your insistance on trying to disclose > the name of someone who clearly wants to protect his identity. Alex, pot-kettle-black, you sanctimonious harpy >>> More in response to Mike Freely (Mike is his true first name) regarding >>> statins. [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > > Alex, pot-kettle-black, you sanctimonious harpy Not true! Sanctimonious, sure. Actually, if you knew me better, you'd rank that as one of my BETTER qualities. But not a harpy. A harpy can't have prostate cancer, first because it's mythical, and second because it's female. Yup, even my response is sanctimonious. Alex Here one more Cancer Science Volume 97 Page 133 - February 2006 at http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1349-7006.2006.00153.x?journa lCode=cas Use of hydroxy-methyl-glutaryl coenzyme A reductase inhibitors is associated with risk of lymphoid malignancies Hiroshi Iwata1,, Keitaro Matsuo7,13,, Shigeo Hara2, Kengo Takeuchi9, Tomonori Aoyama3, Naoko Murashige11, Yoshinobu Kanda10, Shin-ichiro Mori12, Risturo Suzuki8, Shintaro Tachibana4, Masaaki Case control study observed an elevated risk of lymphoid malignancy with statin use among Japanese patients Keith > >>Is the ubiquitous Dr. Joseph Mercola reliable? > > [quoted text clipped - 63 lines] > PMID: 16211237 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] > <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=Abstra ctPlus&list_uids=16211237> >Here one more > [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] >Case control study observed an elevated risk of lymphoid malignancy >with statin use among Japanese patients Here is an European study which showed _reduced_ risk of lymphoid malignancies with statin use: Fortuny J, de Sanjose S, Becker N, Maynadie M, Cocco PL, Staines A, Foretova L, Vornanen M, Brennan P, Nieters A, Alvaro T, Boffetta P. Statin use and risk of lymphoid neoplasms: results from the European Case-Control Study EPILYMPH. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2006 May;15(5):921-5. PMID: 16702371 [PubMed - in process] <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=Abstra ctPlus&list_uids=16702371> <http://cebp.aacrjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/15/5/921> "BACKGROUND: Statins, drugs used to treat dyslipidemia, may have anticancer properties. We have evaluated lymphoma risk associated with regular statin use in an international case- control study. METHODS: This case-control study included 2,362 cases of incident B- and T-cell lymphoma from Czech Republic, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, and Spain and 2,206 hospital or population controls. Information on drug use, diagnosis at admission (for hospital controls), and putative risk factors for lymphoma was collected with personal interviews. Hospital controls admitted for diseases possibly entailing use of statins were excluded from the analysis. RESULTS: The odds ratio for regular statin use was 0.61 (95% confidence interval, 0.45-0.84); all major lymphoma subtypes showed similarly decreased risks. Decreased risks were observed in all centers. Duration of statin use was not associated with a greater reduction in the risk of lymphoma. Use of other lipid lowering drugs, such as fibrates, did not significantly modify the risk of lymphoma (odds ratio, 0.75; 95% confidence interval, 0.44-1.27). CONCLUSION: Statin use was associated with an important reduction in lymphoma risk, adding to the growing evidence of anticancer properties of this group of drugs. These results are reassuring for the increasing number of patients taking statins on a regular basis." SignatureMatti Narkia > Manufacturers of statin drugs have recognized the fact that statins > depress the immune system, an effect that can lead to cancer and > infectious disease, recommending statin use for inflammatory arthritis > and as an immune suppressor for transplant patients.28" Statins play havoc with anti-inflammatory drugs. > The statement is from http://www.mercola.com/2004/jul/24/statin_drugs.htm , Bastards appear to be nothing but an address harvester. Supposed to leave an e-mail address just to read the story, then it locks up the computer - won't let you excape from the site without rebooting. > Bastards appear to be nothing but an address harvester. Supposed > to leave an e-mail address just to read the story, then it locks up > the > computer - won't let you excape from the site without rebooting. Didn't happen to me, but I agree -- I won't usually register with sites much below the level of Johns-Hopkins or JAMA. I.P. I haven't kept score between the references or posters because the score isn't the main issue. The main issue, IMO, is that, like almost everything else with PC, the debates among even the professionals go on. And on. And on. My conclusions so far include:: 1. Statins may affect different types of cancer quite differently, if at all. 2. Statins are great drugs, nearing wonderdrug status. 3. They harm some patients, especially those who frequently do heavy physical exercise or labor. 4. U.S. physicians are not very knowledgeable about the precautions and downsides associated with statins. 5. The downside picture is emerging quite slowly, but is real and not just internet paranoia. 6. Even if the percentages are low (except for #3), 1% of hundreds of millions of pts is a serious number. Think "Ritalin", antidepressants, etc. on even larger scales. 7. I'm not going back on statins until my pain subsides, my pain is credibly attributed to another cause, cholesterol gains more support as a CVD marker AND is shown to improve our health and life span, my other CVD markers raise red flags, AND I stop my long, hard play and exercise for other reasons. I KNOW my muscles and joints were extremely painful, BELIEVE they were caused by statins plus hard exercise, and do NOT want to experience that again. "They" only say statins MAY improve my health. "Knows" usually trump "mays" for me. OTOH, since Mercola's own references did not support his claims in my estimation, and given some of the other oddball claims and topics on his website, I suspect his website is worthy of only the most casual observation, if that. I.P. |
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