Using Cholesterol-Lowering Medicines Can Slow Down Development of Cancer

Many people need to take statins in order to lower their cholesterol levels. However, statins may be able to do even more: researchers have discovered that these medications can suppress a gene that promotes cancer cell metastasis.

Even after successful tumor surgery, cancer patients are more likely to die from metastases than from the main tumor.

This is due to the fact that cancer cells can travel to other parts of the body early in the disease when the tumor is still small and may not have even been diagnosed. To do so, they must break free from the extracellular matrix and travel into surrounding lymphatic or blood arteries, where they settle and multiply in new tissue.

Statins identified on drug testing

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Cancer cells that express MACC1 have an increased potential to multiply, migrate around the body, and invade other organs. "Many malignancies only spread in patients with strong MACC1 expression," Stein notes.

MACC1's role as a critical factor and biomarker of tumor growth and metastasis has now been explored by many other researchers worldwide and verified in more than 300 papers, not only in colorectal cancer but also in more than 20 solid tumors such as gastric, liver, and breast cancer, as per ScienceDaily.

Professor Ulrike Stein and her colleagues at the Experimental and Clinical Research Center (ECRC) identified a key driver of this process in human colorectal cancer: the metastasis-associated in colon cancer 1 (MACC1) gene. The ECRC is a collaboration between the Helmholtz Association's Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) and Charité Universitätsmedizin in Berlin.

Stein has now found, in collaboration with Dr. Robert Preißner of Charité, what could disrupt metastatic progression in such cases: statins, which are recommended as cholesterol-lowering medicines, suppress MACC1 production in tumor cells.

The statins were not recommended for preventive measures

As per Eurekalert, Stein recommends people not to use statins as a preventative approach without first contacting a doctor and having their cholesterol levels tested to ensure no major adverse effects arise because they are still in the early stages the expert emphasizes.

Cell lines and mice are not human beings so they cannot immediately translate the results, she adds, adding that the experimental research and retrospective data analysis will now be followed by a clinical study. Only then will it be feasible to say definitively if statins prevent or diminish metastasis in patients with high MACC1 expression.

The risk of metastases in cancer

Metastases are frequently more harmful than the initial tumor that causes them. They are to blame for 90% of all cancer fatalities. Here are the key facts about these deadly sleeper tumors, as per DW.

Metastases or secondary cancer growths that spread throughout the body are generally considered as the initial tumor's 'deadly progeny,' formed by cells released by the primary tumor and carried to other organs or body parts. Cells multiply and expand into hazardous metastatic cancers at these secondary locations.

When malignant cells reach the circulation or lymphatic system, they travel throughout the body, docking onto and entering tissue in various parts of the body.

They settle themselves and proceed to divide, eventually transforming into metastases. These metastatic tumors are no longer localized, which means they can spread throughout the body and are no longer under control.