Reduce levels of bad cholesterol or LDL is one of the main strategies to prevent cardiovascular disease. However, according to recent studies by experts, LDL cholesterol levels are too low related to the cancer cases.
In a recent research, scientists in the United States to observe as many as 201 cancer patients and 402 patients without cancer. Researchers found that cancer patients who had never used cholesterol-lowering drugs turned out to have high levels of bad cholesterol or "LDL" lower on average 19 years before cancer diagnosis.
The researchers said the findings suggest the existence of several mechanisms that affect the low levels of LDL cholesterol and cancer risk. The plan, these findings were presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology (ACC) in Chicago.
Researchers claim this discovery as the first to investigate the association between low LDL levels with risk of cancer for cancer patients who had never used cholesterol-lowering drugs. In previous research, researchers have found a strong relationship between the effects of cholesterol-lowering drugs to lower LDL cholesterol levels and cancer risk.
"There is some debate whether drugs used to lower cholesterol can cause cancer? But the evidence so far suggests that the drug did not increase the risk of cancer. In this study, we wanted to see the relationship between cancer risk and low LDL cholesterol in people who had never taken or cholesterol-lowering statin drugs, "said study leader, Dr Paul Michael Lavigne of Tufts Medical Center in Boston.
Although this study found an association between low LDL levels and increased risk of cancer, it does not prove causality.
"I believe that lowering LDL cholesterol levels, can significantly reduce the risk of cardiovascular events. But the link between low LDL cholesterol and cancer is still a hypothesis and needs further testing," continued Dr. Jeffrey Berger, director of cardiovascular thrombosis of the NYU Langone Medical Center, which also an assistant professor of NYU School of Medicine in New York City.
"The link between low LDL cholesterol and cancer risk has become a topic of interest, but we can not draw conclusions from this study," Mr. Berger added.
"This study suggests that there may be a kind of unique attributes in people who have low LDL levels that can make them susceptible to cancer, but need further research to see why it could happen," he explained.
Lavigne insisted, despite these findings suggest a link between low LDL levels and cancer, he still insisted that patients with high LDL cholesterol to continue treatment and lower their LDL cholesterol to prevent heart disease.
"There is no evidence to show that lowering cholesterol by any treatment can increase the risk of cancer. We suspect there may be some mechanism that affects between cancer and low LDL cholesterol levels," said Lavigne.
Meanwhile, other scientists claim to agree that patients should not leave the lifestyle changes to lower cholesterol or stop taking the cholesterol-lowering drug-related findings.
Dr. David Friedman, head of the heart failure service of North Shore Hospital Plainview, Plainview, NY, said, "statin used to lower LDL levels, so its use should not be discontinued if the use is appropriate to reduce the risk of heart disease."
Sources:healthdaynews
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