The Simvastatin and Ezetimibe in Aortic Stenosis (SEAS) trial found out that the drug Vytorin, used to lower the levels of bad cholesterol, might increase the risk of developing cancer. However, the FDA said that doctors should continue to prescribe the drug, but should be careful and identify the eventual side effects that might appear and report them to the federal agency.

The trial discovered that patients who had been administered Vytorin did not present a lower risk of developing cardiovascular diseases compared to the ones who had been administered a placebo. On the other hand, the persons who took the drug were twice more likely to develop cancer than the other ones.

The thing that might have determined the FDA not to ban the product is that the number of people who took the drug and developed cancer represented a little over 4 percent of the persons included in the trial, while the other ones accounted for about 2 percent. Both figures being pretty insignificant, the risk was probably considered not to be big enough to necessitate any special measures to be taken. What is more, preliminary results from other studies did not reveal this danger.

Vytorin is a combination of two other drugs, Zocor, a statin drug developed by Merck & Co., and Zetia, from Schering-Plough Pharmaceuticals. It efficiently reduces the level of bad cholesterol, also known as LDL, by blocking an enzyme that makes the liver to produce it, at the same time blocking its absorption in the intestine.