High Cholesterol Linked to Increased Risk of Breast Cancer

A recent study found that there may be a common link between high cholesterol and breast cancer risk.

Though study findings are still preliminary, researchers found that obese women with high cholesterol levels may be more likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer. The study also strengthens the idea that cholesterol-lowering drugs, including statins, could cut breast cancer risk.

As previous findings have shown that high-fat diets increase breast cancer risk, researchers have now discovered a more thorough break-down to just how cholesterol affects the hormone estrogen and increases breast cancer risk.   

For the study, researchers used data from one million women in the Algorithm for Comorbidities, Associations, Length of Stay and Mortality (ACALM) clinical database. All participants were from the UK and had participated in the study between 2000 and 2013. That data included 664,159 women, of which 22,938 had hyperlipidemia and 9,312 had breast cancer. From the sample, 530 of the women with hyperlipidaemia also developed breast cancer.

Using a statistical model to evaluate the association, the researchers found that hyperlipidaemia had elevated the risk of breast cancer by 1.64 times.

"We found that women with high cholesterol had a significantly greater chance of developing breast cancer. This was an observational study so we can't conclude that high cholesterol causes breast cancer but the strength of this association warrants further investigation," Dr Potluri said in a statement. "A prospective study that monitors the risk of breast cancer in women with and without high cholesterol is needed to confirm what we observed. If the connection between high cholesterol and breast cancer is validated, the next step would be to see if lowering cholesterol with statins can reduce the risk of developing cancer."

The researchers next plan is to evaluate whether statins help prevent breast cancer in high risk groups, such as women with high cholesterol.

The research was presented today at Frontiers in CardioVascular Biology (FCVB) 2014 in Barcelona, Spain.