Abstract:
Cholesterol-uptake-blocking drugs inhibit angiogenesis and are useful to inhibit diseases perpetuated by angiogenesis. Cholesterol reduction with the use of the drugs increases the intratumoral level of thrombospondin-1, an angiogenesis inhibitor. Ezetimibe (Zetia), a specific cholesterol-uptake blocking drug, also retards the growth of human tumors, most preferably in combination with low-cholesterol diet. The pharmacologic reduction in serum cholesterol retards prostate cancer growth by inhibiting tumor angiogenesis to combat the growth of prostatic tumors which are directly accelerated by hypercholesterolemia.