Abstract
BACKGROUND: It is an unclear how cholesterol-lowering statin drugs affect progression of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). METHODS: Clinical records of 57 CLL patients were examined to determine how initiating statins in the "watch and wait" phase of management affected disease progression. RESULTS: After 6.4 ± 0.6 months, when average low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels had been lowered from 3.58 ± 0.11 mM to 2.1 ± 0.06 mM, blood levels of CLL cells and beta-2-microglobulin (β2M) increased significantly, accompanied by significant decreases in platelets. Following statin institution, rates of change of blood lymphocytes and β2M increased from 1.55 ± 0.39 × 10(6) to 3.4 ± 0.68 × 10(6) cells/mL/month (n = 43) and 0.035 ± 0.011 to 0.055 ± 0.007 μg/mL/month (n = 40), respectively. Conventional first-line CLL treatment was ultimately required in 37 patients. CONCLUSIONS: These observations suggest that statins as single agent do not slow and may even modestly stimulate progression of CLL.