Cholesterol drugs not posing cancer risk

LONDON: Researchers have found cholestrol-lowering drugs to be beneficial without posing any serious safety problems such as increased cancer risk.Such findings are a great sigh of relief for patients who had been prescribed these medicines because of their heart problems
Although the drug named as "Statin drug" is not without any side-effects;it can cause muscle pain, nausea, and occasional kidney and liver damage but long-term follow-up in the 20,000-patient Heart Protection Study (HPS) found no evidence that the drug makes the patient prone to cancer
Some studies conducted in past indicated a link between cancer risk and statin but three years  ago a major analysis by researchers in USA  concluded that there was no such link
“Concerns should be put to rest, and doctors should feel reassured about the long-term safety of this life-saving treatment for patients at increased cardiovascular risk,” Payal Kohli and Christopher Cannon of Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital commented in the Lancet medical journal.
The HPS study analysed the benefits of 40 milligrams daily of simvastatin and found a 23 per cent reduction in heart attack, stroke and vascular disease after five years in those on treatment – and the benefit continued largely unchanged for a further six years when statin use, which was encouraged, was similar in both groups of patients.
Other popular statin medicines include Lipitor ,Lovastatin and AstraZeneca’s Crestor.