Statins as Potential Therapeutics for Esophageal Cancer

Abstract

Esophageal cancer is a malignancy that has a poor prognosis, which is mainly due to patients presenting once the cancer is in the advances stages. Chemotherapy has been the mainstay for treating esophageal cancer. However, these agents are not consistently effective and fail to differentiate between the different subtypes of esophageal cancers. Targeted therapies have slowly been introduced into the clinical setting, and initial results seem to be promising. Nevertheless, these medications are not universally cheap and also have non-negligible side effects. Therefore, identifying other classes of drugs which could possess anti-esophageal cancer properties is appealing. In addition to expediting the research and development phases of drug discovery, these agents will have known side effect profiles. Statins are a class of cholesterol-lowering medications that have been prescribed for decades. There is a growing body of literature that has shown the anticancer properties of statins in the setting of various malignancies. Herein, we summarize and assimilate the current evidence pertaining to the potential anti-esophageal cancer benefits of statins. We also discuss the limitations of the published studies and consider the future role statins can play in treating patients with esophageal cancers.

Keywords: Clinical outcomes; Clinical studies; Esophageal cancer; Preclinical studies; Statins.