No Definitive Link Seen Between Vytorin and Cancer

Review results are reassuring, one cardiologist says

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

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TUESDAY, Sept. 2 (HealthDay News) -- New research finds no definitive link between Vytorin and cancer risk, but it also suggests that the cholesterol-lowering drug cannot curb cardiovascular disease.

The results of a small study published recently suggested that Vytorin (ezetimibe) might boost the chances of developing cancer. In that study, called SEAS, researchers found that among patients taking Vytorin, 101 developed cancer, compared with 65 in the control group. Among these patients, 39 taking Vytorin died, compared with 23 in the control group.

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However, a three-study analysis in the Sept. 2 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine did not find compelling evidence of such a connection. A second study in the same issue of the journal found that taking Vytorin with a statin did not benefit patients with abnormal narrowing of the aortic valve called aortic stenosis.

"Overall, the three ezetimibe trials show no credible evidence of any effect on cancer rates," the Oxford University researchers said about their review in a statement. "The SEAS result appears to have been a chance finding. When the results of all the trials are analyzed properly, no particular type of cancer is significantly increased, and there is no significant excess of death from any particular type of cancer."

"The recent, unexpected findings of the SEAS study raised concern that the use of the selective cholesterol-absorption inhibitor ezetimibe, which lowers LDL cholesterol through mechanisms different than statin medications, was associated with increased risk of cancer," said Gregg Fonarow, a professor of cardiology at the University of California, Los Angeles. "This new analysis, which included data from two larger ongoing clinical trials, is reassuring in that there has not been excess cancer risk observed in these two other trials."

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