Full clinical trials to test the impact of the cholesterol-busting drugs on the number of breast cancer cases could now happen within 10 years.
The breakthrough comes after scientists discovered a link between having high cholesterol levels and developing the disease that kills nearly 12,000 women a year in the UK.
It means the cheap and simple heart pills could become a powerful new treatment.
A study of one million British women found high cholesterol increased the risk of developing breast cancer by 1.64 times.
Lead researcher Dr Rahul Potluri, from Aston University in Birmingham, said: “Statins are cheap, widely available and relatively safe. We are potentially heading towards a clinical trial in 10 to 15 years.
“If such a trial is successful, statins may have a role in the prevention of breast cancer especially in high-risk groups.”
This was an observational study so we can’t conclude that high cholesterol causes breast cancer
Recent studies have suggested a link between obesity and breast cancer.
Dr Potluri’s team conducted an analysis of more than a million patients across the UK between 2000 and 2013 from the Algorithm for Comorbidities, Associations, Length of stay and Mortality clinical database.
He said: “We found that women with high cholesterol had a significantly greater chance of developing breast cancer.
“This was an observational study so we can’t conclude that high cholesterol causes breast cancer but the strength of this association warrants further investigation.”
The findings were presented yesterday at the Frontiers in CardioVascular Biology meeting in Barcelona, Spain.
Breakthrough Breast Cancer said: “This study is promising. It may point us to an important development.”