Effects of statins on brain tumors: a review

Evidence from preclinical studies suggests that the competitive HMG-CoA reductase (HMGCR) inhibitors universally known as 'statins,' in addition to being powerful drugs that reduce cholesterol and improve cardiovascular risk, also have promising antitumor properties. Statins appear to enhance the treatment outcome of various cancers before and concurrent with other cancer treatment interventions. Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), a particularly invasive cerebral tumor associated with high mortality, holds a poor median overall survival (OS) of around one year after surgical resection followed by concurrent radiation and chemotherapy. Recently, statins have increasingly appeared as potential adjuvant drugs for the treatment of GBM because of their potential to suppress cell growth, survival, migration, metastasis, inflammation, angiogenesis, and promote apoptosis during both in vitro and in vivo studies. However, the clinical outcomes of statins on the survival of patients with GBM are still controversial. This study aims to review and address some of the documented effects of statin drugs when focusing entirely on cancer treatment, especially GBM, including concurrent statin therapy with chemotherapeutic agents.