STATINS may help beat colon cancer, experts argue.
The cheap pills, often used by millions to lower cholesterol, have been shown to stop tumor growth in lab tests.
Researchers claim the “exciting” breakthrough could help in a quarter of cases, benefiting about 10,000 Britons a year.
Four in five colon cancers are due to a mutation in the APC gene — which controls how cells grow — causing tumors to form.
Scientists from Queen Mary University of London have tested more than 1,200 already approved drugs on mutated cancer cells.
The team found three statins — Lovostatin, Mevastatin and Simvastatin — all of which worked to kill tumors.
While the cholesterol-lowering drugs won’t cure the disease, they can help prevent the cancer from spreading and becoming fatal.
Every year 40,000 Britons are diagnosed with colon cancer, including Sun writer Dame Deborah James.
Lead researcher Dr Sarah Martin of the Barts Cancer Institute’s Center of Cancer Cell & Molecular Biology, QMUL, said: “This is a very exciting development.
“If statins could be used to halt the progression of colon cancer, that would be very good news for patients.”
The findings are published in the journal Frontiers in Oncology.
Currently, the only treatment for colon cancer is surgery and chemotherapy, which have toxic side effects.
dr. Martin added: “If we could prescribe statins as an effective treatment for colorectal cancer, it means that patients would probably be able to take them for some time, significantly prolonging their lives and changing their quality of life during treatment.
“Statins can’t cure cancer, but we believe they can reduce the tumor so it doesn’t spread or grow back.”
Further research is now needed to determine which patients will benefit the most.
Lynn Dunn, Interim Chief Executive Officer of Bowel Research UK who helped fund the study, said: “The promising results… on statins and colon cancer are another fantastic validation of our research funding strategy.”
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