Tsibouris P, Vlachou E, Isaacs PET. Role of chemoprophylaxis with either NSAIDs or statins in patients with Barrett’s esophagus. World J Gastrointest Pharmacol Ther 2014; 5(1): 27-39 [PMID: 24605249 DOI: 10.4292/wjgpt.v5.i1.27]
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Received: August 24, 2013 Revised: November 9, 2013 Accepted: November 15, 2013 Published online: February 6, 2014
Core Tip
Core tip: Esophageal adenocarcinoma remains a major burden upon health. Experimental studies have suggested that non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and statins may have useful actions against esophageal cancer cells. This review of observational studies shows that non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs reduced adenocarcinoma incidence in patients with Barrett’s esophagus by 41%, while statins reduced the risk by 43%. The cancer preventive effect is enhanced in those patients taking a combination of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and statins (a 74% decrease). Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs clearly have substantial potential for toxicity, while statins are rather safe drugs. Their combination offers promise for chemoprevention and further interventional studies are warranted.
