Breast cancer, the dreaded word that we hear so often, is the second leading cause of death among American women. Did you know that this year alone approximately 232,670 women in the US will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer?
What is causing such a staggering amount of women to have to face this ugly beast? There have been multiple studies conducted over the past years, many of which have indicated a link between obesity and cancer.
A few days ago, a new study was presented at the Frontiers in Cardiovascular Biology meeting in Barcelona, Spain. The findings show a link between high cholesterol and cancer.
Dr. Rahul Potluri led the research team at the Aston University School of Medicine in the UK in this study. From the research, Dr. Potluri’s team found that statins, which are drugs used to lower levels of “bad” cholesterol in the blood could also be used to help prevent breast cancer.
The team analyzed a database of breast cancer patients from 2000-2013. Of the 664,159 women in the database, 22,938 had hyperlipidemia, also known as high cholesterol, and 9,312 had breast cancer. 530 of the women with high cholesterol developed breast cancer. Their research concluded that women with high cholesterol were 1.64 times more likely to develop breast cancer.
Although the research team believes their study is purely observational at this point, they believe there to be a definite link. They hope to validate this information through further research and eventually would like to see if reducing cholesterol by using statins could possibly help lower the risk of breast cancer.
“Statins are cheap, widely available and relatively safe,” says Dr. Potluri. “We are potentially heading towards a clinical trial in 10-15 years to test the effect of statins on the incidence of breast cancer. If such a trial is successful, statins may have a role in the prevention of breast cancer especially in high risk groups, such as women with high cholesterol.”
Medical News Today reported that researchers from University College London in the UK are in the process of developing a blood test to help predict the likelihood of a woman getting breast cancer.
Hopefully through the years of more intensive research there will be even greater breakthroughs in figuring out why breast cancer numbers are so staggering and how to help prevent this deadly disease.
If you are in need of scheduling a women’s exam to stay as healthy as possible, please contact our Lake City or Gainesville office. Also, to learn more about women’s health issues continue to read in our blog and knowledge center.
