Groundbreaking New Study Reveals That Statins Could Prevent Cancer

Research findings show that pitavastatin suppresses skin and pancreatic cancers by inhibiting interleukin-33.
A recent study conducted by researchers at Mass General Cancer Center has found that statins, which are widely used to reduce cholesterol, might inhibit a specific pathway linked to cancer development caused by chronic inflammation. These results were reported in Nature Communications.

“Chronic inflammation is a major cause of cancer worldwide,” said senior author Shawn Demehri, MD, PhD, a principal investigator at the Center for Cancer Immunology and Cutaneous Biology Research Center of Massachusetts General Hospital and an associate professor of Dermatology at Harvard Medical School. “We investigated the mechanism by which environmental toxins drive the initiation of cancer-prone chronic inflammation in the skin and pancreas,” says Demehri, who is also the Bob and Rita Davis Family MGH Research Scholar 2023-2028. “Furthermore, we examined safe and effective therapies to block this pathway in order to suppress chronic inflammation and its cancer aftermath.”