Effect of Statins in the Watch and Wait Phase of Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia

It is an unclear how cholesterol-lowering statin drugs affect progression of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).

Clinical records of 57 CLL patients were examined to determine how initiating statins in the "watch and wait" phase of management affected disease progression.

After 6.4 ± 0.6 months, when average low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels had been lowered from 3.58 ± 0.11 mM to 2.1 ± 0.06 mM, blood levels of CLL cells and beta-2-microglobulin (β2M) increased significantly, accompanied by significant decreases in platelets. Following statin institution, rates of change of blood lymphocytes and β2M increased from 1.55 ± 0.39 × 10⁶ to 3.4 ± 0.68 × 10⁶ cells/mL/month (n = 43) and 0.035 ± 0.011 to 0.055 ± 0.007 μg/mL/month (n = 40), respectively. Conventional first-line CLL treatment was ultimately required in 37 patients.

These observations suggest that statins as single agent do not slow and may even modestly stimulate progression of CLL.