Longitudinal cohort study highlights cancer-preventive benefits of lipid-lowering drugs

Cancer prevention is a serious global challenge. We aimed to investigate the relationship between lipid-lowering drugs and cancers. We included participants based on the UK Biobank. Lipid-lowering drug use was defined as new users before enrollment and the primary outcome was cancer incidence. The Cox proportional hazards regression model was used to evaluate the association between drug use and outcome. We also performed a meta-analysis. We found that lipid-lowering drugs were associated with decreased risk of 21 types of cancers, including melanoma, skin cancer, and reproductive, hematological, urinary, digestive, nervous, and endocrine system cancers (all p < 0.0010). Our meta-analysis documented that lipid-lowering drugs reduced the risk of prostate, liver, and gastric cancers, especially (all p < 0.050). Overall, lipid-lowering drugs had protective associations with cancer incidence, suggesting the possible cancer prevention effects even in the general population.