The Great Cholesterol Myth: Why Lowering Your Cholesterol Won't Prevent Heart Disease--and the Statin-Free Plan that Will

by Jonny Bowden

Statins can potentially promote cancer through a variety of mechanisms: one, through reductions in natural killer cell cytotoxicity (which, over time, decrease the body’s immune response to tumor cells); two, through increases in endothelial progenitor cells in the bone marrow (which are associated with invasive breast cancer and lymphoma, and can potentially feed tumors by supporting new blood vessel growth); and three, by increasing the numbers and functionality of regulatory T-cells (which can impair the body’s immune response against tumors and decrease the effectiveness of cancer immunotherapy).