The drug works differently from the cholesterol-lowering statin medicines that have become mainstays in treating and preventing heart disease. Instead, it reduces inflammation — the response by the immune system to injury or infection — which researchers have long suspected of playing a role in cardiovascular disease and cancer. About half of people who have heart attacks have normal cholesterol levels, and researchers think that in some of them, inflammation may contribute to heart and artery disease. “We know inflammation is a driver of lung cancer progression.”If the finding holds up, he said, the drug might reduce cancer risk in former smokers. Quitting is still the best way to lower the risks of both lung cancer and heart disease, he said.

Source: New York Times August 27, 2017 09:00 UTC