Stopping Statins may be Beneficial for Late Stage Cancer Patients

A recent study shows that discontinuing statins may be beneficial for those in late stages of cancer and other terminal illnesses.

Study results showed that discontinuing statins in patients with advanced illnesses resulted in better life overall and lower mortality rates. The findings also suggested that patients who stopped taking statins appeared to live slightly longer.

"When you look at the number of medications people take when they are dying, it doubles in the last year of life," said lead author Amy Abernethy, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Center for Learning Health Care at the Duke Clinical Research Institute and a member of the Duke Cancer Institute, via Medical Xpress. Abernethy represented the Palliative Care Research Cooperative Group, a national research network focused on improving care for people with serious illnesses, in the press release. 

"Cancer patients, for example, take medications for pain, nausea and other problems associated with advanced disease," Abernethy added. "Many don't have an appetite, and simply swallowing medications can be a problem. So the issue is whether some longstanding medications such as cholesterol-lowering drugs might be safely discontinued, but there has been little research to help guide clinicians in making that recommendation."

Study findings also revealed that close to $600 million a year could be saved if patients in the late stages of fatal illnesses stopped their statin use, according to U.S. estimates.

"This is a decision that needs to be discussed between patients and their doctors; it's not something that should be done independently or in a one-size-fits-all manner," Abernethy said, via the news organization. "But our study found that patients who discontinued statins reported improvements in quality of life. This runs counter to the idea that discontinuing a treatment would cause people to somehow feel as if they were getting less care or inadequate care."

More information regarding the findings can be seen via the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting in Chicago.