Statins and BCG

Great. Thanks for the update Joey.

The folks at Hopkins are certainly going to be the experts!
Glad to see that you are working with them.

Good luck on the treatment regimen.

Mike

Thanks when I called my doctor at Hopkins and spoke to his assistant they didn't seem to have any concerns.

Joey

Yeah ..there was a lot of talk about statins for a while but with only small studies..the one at MSK with Dr. Grossman has no conflict of interests and essentially says
This retrospective study in a large cohort of patients showed no statistically significant association between statin use and recurrence or progression to open surgery in patients treated with bacillus Calmette-Guerin for transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder. Based on these data patients should not be discouraged from taking statins while undergoing bacillus Calmette-Guerin treatment.
This is kind of like the controversy on Aspirin and BCG written by Grossman, Lamm, Kamat and others pretty well known in the field. an interesting read.
tinyurl.com/2asgnjk
pat

I was on 60mg of simvastatin (Zocor) when I got BCG. My general physician and my urologist didn't seem to think there was any problem with it. However, I didn't do any personal research on it at the time either. Just never thought of it. I failed BCG after a couple of doses anyway so I guess it didn't matter much in my case.


Here is one study on it:

BCG and Statins Starts at the bottom of page 2705 (1st page). This is from 2006. It is not clear if taking statins prior (but going off during treatment) was looked at all. So, based on information in this study it might not make a difference even if you went off during BCG since you've been taking it. My personal (not medical) opinion is that it would need a group that didn't take statins, a group that took statins but stopped prior to starting BCG, and group that took statins and stayed on them through BCG treatments in order to be relevant. I would think it would be beneficial to even further stratify the statin users by the amount of statins they use. Is 20mg ok but 60mg not ok? That type of thing. That's not medicine, that's just basic scientific theory that they teach in fourth grade. But I have to tell you that I am often amazed when reading these studies that the research methods and control groups don't really even follow what we learned as kids to be basic research methodology.... (oh well different story for a different day).

This following study is one from two years later and looks to be more comprehensive and says no statiscal significance so patients should not be discouraged from continuing with the statins.

Journal of Urology MSK study

This might be a really good question for you to ask Dr. Lamm on his website. Also worth asking your urologist.

Even with studies like these, you can't tell who may have sponsored it. For example, did a non-statin drug maker for lowering cholestoral fund the first study and statin maker fund the second? Were they purely done for research purposes by the doctors without being specifically funded by someone? That's why I'd ask the doctor for sure in this case.

Now if there were 40 or 50 studies and they all seemed to come up with similar results....STILL ask the doctor.

You don't want to just stop taking something without the doctor knowing and it may not even be worth the risk.

In your case, since you just started and it's a low dose, the doctors (Lamm and yours) may have some ideas about your particular situation.

Mike

I have started a low dose of lipitor for a slightly elevated cholesterol level. I eat pretty healthy but genetics appear to my problem. It appears there is conflicting information on taking statins and bcg not so much from a higher chance of recurrence but progression.

Anyone on statins and BCG? Next BCG numbers 19 -21 in December 2010. Would anyone be concerned?

Thanks Joey