Statin Therapy Dramatically Reduced Lipoma

[Someone]

Hellooo,
Has anyone heard anything positive about Statin Therapy to treat Lipomas?
I've found this study called 'Dramatic reduction in lipoma associated with statin therapy', but can't seem to find the full text anywhere for free.
Anyone with any insight or experiences with this?

Thanks

[251152]

First time I hear about the connection between lipomas and statins. As far as I know, those are a cholesterol lowering drugs, I don't know how can they help to reduce lipomas but they should be easily available in pharmacies so if anyone believes in them enough, trying them should be possible.

[Someone]

Yup they are widely available, and easily prescribed by your doctor, however they do cause side effects from what I've read. And the person in the study seemed to take them for a long time, but his lipoma did significantly reduce.

[251152]

Did he have only one lipoma?

[matt]

Hmm. Very interesting. I hadn't seen this study before.

A 54-year-old man had a lipoma on the left side of his trunk for more than 20 years; it had grown to approximately 3 by 5 cm in 2002. On the basis of clinical examination findings, 3 physicians (two internists; one dermatologist) had confirmed the diagnosis of a common, benign lipoma.1 His medical history was negative except for lifelong asthma, allergic rhinitis, and atopic dermatitis. Because the patient's low-density lipoprotein (LDL) level was 160 mg/dL in 2002, simvastatin therapy (20 mg at bedtime) was initiated.

[matt]

I will buy the article and report here later.

[matt]

Ok, the article is from Feb 2008 and is very short so I'm able to report already. Key points:

• 54 yr old man with 20+ yr old single lipoma
• lifelong asthma, allergic rhinitis, and atopic dermatitis
• low-density lipoprotein (LDL) level 160mg/dL
• simvastatin therapy (a lipid lowering medication) was started
• At this time, total cholesterol was 241 mg/dL, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) 52 mg/dL, and triglycerides 143 mg/dL.
• After 1 yr patient noticed a dramatic decrease in size of his lipoma
• After 3 yrs the lipoma size was a quarter of it's original size
• Weight of the patient remained the same
• After 4 yrs LDL was 73 mg/dL, total cholesterol 145 mg/dL, HDL 54 mg/dL, and triglycerides 92 mg/dL.

The researchers remain uncertain whether the decrease in size was because of the statin drug or spontaneous but speculate that he dramatic reduction of lipoma in our patient could be analogous to the regression of coronary atherosclerosis documented with statin therapy.

Thanks for Someone for bringing this to our attention!

[matt]

I have tried to research why simvastatin could shrink lipoma. I even asked this from Dr. Karen Herbst but while we are waiting for an answer (hopefully she'll reply this time!) I did some research myself.

Many of you know that I have a strong suspicion that lipomas might have some sort of a microbial origin. This is purely hypothetical but I found out that many statins have quite strong antimicrobial effects. In this study the researchers found out that simvastatin could act against bacteria called S. aureus. Another study concludes:

Our findings might raise the possibility of a potentially important antibacterial class effect for statins especially, atorvastatin and simvastatin.

And there's even a study which tells:

Data suggests a potent antimicrobial activity of simvastatin against both A. actinomycetemcomitans and P gingivalis. Hence simvastatin can be prescribed as a dual action drug in patients with both hyperlipidemia and periodontal disease.

[matt]

Also, high dose simvastatin is a potential anticancer therapy (here and here). Although, not the "perfect" drug since the studies seem to indicate better anticancer drugs exist. This might explain why it took 3 years for the above patient to achieve a decrease of 75 % of his lipoma. Simvastatin works on lipoma but apparently quite slowly.

[matt]

Unfortunally Dr. Karen Herbst only answered that many are using statins but somehow this lipoma reacted to it. I couldn't find the post any longer from Karen's profile so I guess she has removed it? But I would have asked if did she knew that simvastatin has been proven to be the most potent of all statins against tumors and microbies.

Perhaps this lipoma reacted because simvastatin was used instead of another statin? And perhaps it was because of the dosage?

I mean, I'm a little bit of disappointed to Dr. Herbst's reply since it's her task to find out why the drug worked, not ours...

[matt]

Here's a recent study which describes beneficial effects of simvastatin towards lipomas.