Are statins onco- suppressive agents for every type of tumor? A systematic review of literature.

Introduction: Statins, in the role of anti-cancer agents, have been used in many types of cancers with results in some cases promising while, in others, disappointing.

Areas Covered: The purpose of this review is to identify and highlight data from literature on the successes or failure of using statins as anti-cancer agents. We asked ourselves the following two questions:1. 2.

Expert Opinion: There are data which correlate statins with a possible tumor suppressive action among the following cancers: breast, lung, prostate and head and neck. Lastly, for gastric cancer and colorectal there is no evidence of a correlation. The onco-suppressive efficacy of statins is mainly related to the histopathological and/or molecular characteristics of the tumor cells, which have different characteristics.