Health Buzz: Prostate Drug May Cut Cancer Risk

Health Buzz: Prostate Drug May Cut Cancer Risk A new study found that a drug currently used to treat a benign prostate condition may also be an effective way to prevent prostate cancer, reports the Los Angeles Times. GlaxoSmithKline's AvodartHealth food, approved to treat benign prostate enlargement, reduced the risk of developing cancer in 3,305 men at elevated risk of the disease by 22.8 percent compared to those men given a placebo. The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, did find a slightly increased risk of heart failure in those taking the drug: 0.7 percent, compared to 0.4 percent in the placebo group. The Times said previous research showed a protective effect from a similar drug, but that Avodart appears "slightly more effective." GlaxoSmithKline is seeking Food and Drug Administration approval for the expanded use of the drug.

Statins for Prevention? Taking a Cholesterol-Lowering Drug When Cholesterol Is Normal

Drugmaker AstraZeneca is gearing up to launch a marketing campaign for its statin Crestor that will target adults without high cholesterol, the New York Times reports. Their new effort was made possible by the Food and Drug Administration's recent approval of the cholesterol-lowering drug for use in folks whose cholesterol levels are normal and whose doctors haven't diagnosed them with heart disease. The move aims to better shield millions more Americans against future heart attacks, strokes, heart procedures, and surgery, U.S. News's Lindsay Lyon wrote last month.

The FDA's decision hinged on the results of a large study, called the Jupiter trial, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2008. Jupiter took almost 18,000 middle-aged adults and assigned them to either Crestor or a sugar pill. Under national guidelines, the study participants would not have normally been prescribed a statin because their levels of "bad" LDL cholesterol weren't high enough.Health food But all of the participants had elevated levels of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), a measure of inflammation. Researchers hoped Crestor might lower the risk of cardiovascular problems since statins also reduce CRP.