Statins Associated With Reduction in PSA Levels But Implications Are Unclear and Questioned

October 29, 2008 — In an observational study, the use of cholesterol-lowering statins was associated with a 4% median decline in prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels in men without prostate cancer, from a mean of 0.9 ng/mL to 0.86 ng/mL. The decline is statistically significant, according to a report published online October 28 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

The reduction in PSA was most pronounced — with a median of 17.4% — in men with the highest PSA levels and in those with the largest declines in low-density-lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol.

The use of statins could also “complicate prostate cancer screening because cancers may be missed [because of] the lower PSA levels, and this fact should be kept in mind when evaluating men taking statins,” write the study authors, led by senior author Stephen J. Freedland, MD, associate professor of surgery in the Division of Urology at Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, North Carolina.

However, an accompanying editorial — entitled Prostate-Specific Antigen: A Misused and Maligned Prostate Cancer Biomarker — questions the value of the observational study, including the clinical significance of the results, and says that only a randomized trial can reveal whether statins affect PSA levels in any way.

Source:

1. Statins Associated With Reduction in PSA Levels But Implications Are Unclear and Questioned