Cancer prevention: stopping cancer before it can start

For patients with no cardiovascular risk factors before using celecoxib, the rate of cardiovascular adverse events was 0.9 percent in the placebo group, 3.9 percent in the 400 mg group and 1.9 percent in the high dose group. Cardiovascular risk factors included smoking, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, presence of atherosclerosis and age over 65.

If a patient had one risk factor, the risk was 2.2 percent in the placebo group, 3.7 percent in the 400 mg dose group and 4.9 percent in the high dose group.

The greater cardiovascular risk was observed among patients who had at least two cardiovascular risk factors at the time they entered the study, where the placebo group had a 5.9 percent risk, the 400 mg group had an 8.2 percent risk and the 800 mg group had an 11.2 percent risk.

“This new data allows us to carefully select patients who can benefit from this drug,” Bertagnolli said. “Although it should be used with caution, those patients with a high risk for colon cancer and a low risk for cardiovascular disease are going to receive significant benefit.”

Inhibition of androgen-independent growth of LNCaP xenograft tumors in immunodeficient mice by a combination of atorvastatin (Lipitor) and celecoxib (Celebrex): Abstract 2100

Suggesting a new role for the prevention of advanced prostate cancer by two commonly prescribed drugs, researchers found that a combination of atorvastatin and celecoxib potently inhibited the androgen-independent growth of prostate tumors in a laboratory model.

“This represents a viable prevention strategy to stop the progression of prostate cancer from androgen-dependent to androgen-independent, which is much more aggressive and has limited therapeutic options,” said Xi Zheng, Ph.D., M.D., assistant research professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey.

Previous epidemiology research has shown that statins like atorvastatin and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like celecoxib may reduce the risk of prostate cancer. Zheng and colleagues assessed the effects of atorvastatin and celecoxib alone or in combination on androgen-independent growth of human prostate cancer cells cultured in vitro or grown as tumors in mice.

In the animal study, mice with an androgen-dependent tumor were deprived of androgen and randomly assigned to four groups: those receiving either 10 micrograms/gram body weight per day of atorvastatin or the same dose of celecoxib; those receiving a combination of each drug at 5 micrograms/gram body weight per day; or a control group receiving no drugs.