The results on mouse were perfect. The ten mice the got the inibitor had their tumors resolved, while the ones that did not get the angiostatin had worsening tumors. On humans, it was a different story.. there was some success for some patients, but it was not as easy as a magic drug. Cancer is indeed complex.

However, if you read on the latest cancer drugs approved by the FDA today in 2005, you will find that most of them are statin based. A 10 year study of more than 30,000 men proved that people who take statin drugs to lower cholesterol have a lower prostate cancer risk. Breast cancer also found better numbers with statins.

The FDA just approved Avastin for colon cancer.. again this is a statin based drug.

Great true story.

By the way, I have to disagree with the previous comment that most approved anti-cancer drugs are statins. Statins are cholesterol lowering drugs, although they may or may not have some anti-cancer activity as well. But they are not approved for cancer. Also, the recently approved drug, Avastin, is not a statin, but a monoclonal antibody targeting VEGF, a key regulator of blood vessel growth in tumors, which you will hear a lot more about in this NOVA episode.