Study Presents Association Between High Cholesterol and Breast Cancer

Analysis of over 1 million British women over 14 years highlights a strong association between high blood cholesterol and breast cancer.

High cholesterol is damaging to health. A new study  led by Dr. Rahul Potluri, founder of the ACALM Study Unit, claims high cholesterol levels fuel the growth of breast cancer, reports  Medicalxpress.

Dr Potluri said: "Our preliminary study suggests that women with high cholesterol in their blood may be at greater risk of getting breast cancer. It raises the possibility of preventing breast cancer with statins, which lower cholesterol, but as this is a primitive study, significant time and research is needed before this idea can be tested."

Studies conducted in the past have highlighted a link between obesity and breast cancer. An animal study showed that reducing circulation of cholesterol in mice or by altering the metabolism, they could prevent or treat breast cancer.  In this study the researchers investigated whether there existed any association between hyperlipidaemia (high cholesterol) and breast cancer.

To evaluate this, the researchers conducted an analysis of over 1 million UK patients who were a part of the Algorithm for comorbidities Associations, Length of Stay and Mortality clinical database. The study was conducted over 14 years. The data included 664,159 women in which 22,938 had hyperlipidaemia and 9,312 had breast cancer. 530 women with hyperlipidaemia developed breast cancer.

Using a statistical model to evaluate the association, the researchers found that hyperlipidaemia had elevated the risk of breast cancer by 1.64 times.

"We found that women with high cholesterol had a significantly greater chance of developing breast cancer. This was an observational study so we can't conclude that high cholesterol causes breast cancer but the strength of this association warrants further investigation," Dr Potluri said in a statement. "A prospective study that monitors the risk of breast cancer in women with and without high cholesterol is needed to confirm what we observed. If the connection between high cholesterol and breast cancer is validated, the next step would be to see if lowering cholesterol with statins can reduce the risk of developing cancer."

The researchers next plan to evaluate whether statins help prevent breast cancer in the high risk group, such as women with high cholesterol.

The research was presented today at Frontiers in CardioVascular Biology (FCVB) 2014 in Barcelona, Spain.