Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications
Publication Date
9-4-2022
Journal
Infectious Agent Canc
DOI
10.1186/s13027-022-00460-0
PMID
36058947
PMCID
PMC9441070
PubMedCentral® Posted Date
9-4-2022
PubMedCentral® Full Text Version
Post-print
Published Open-Access
yes
Keywords
Oncogenic virus, Cancer, Statin, Virus-mediated malignancies, HBV, HCV, HPV, EBV, KSHV, HHV8
Abstract
Background: Oncogenic viruses, including hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), human papillomavirus (HPV), Epstein Barr virus (EBV), and Kaposi Sarcoma Herpes virus (KSHV) contribute to a significant proportion of the world's cancers. Given the sizeable burden of virus mediated cancers, development of strategies to prevent and/or treat these cancers is critical. While large population studies suggest that treatment with hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA reductase inhibitors, commonly known as statins, may reduce the risk of many cancer types including HBV/HCV related hepatocellular carcinoma, few studies have specifically evaluated the impact of statin use in populations at risk for other types of virus mediated cancers.
Main body: Studies of populations with HBV and HCV suggest a protective, dose-dependent effect of statins on hepatocellular carcinoma risk and support the theory that statins may offer clinical benefit if used as chemoprophylactic agents to reduce liver cancer incidence. However, no population level data exists describing the impact of statins on populations with other oncogenic viral infections, such as HPV, EBV, and KSHV.
Conclusion: Further study of statin use in diverse, global populations with or at high risk for oncogenic viral infections is essential to determine the impact of statin therapy on virus mediated cancer risk.