A Review of Effects of Atorvastatin in Radiotherapy

Radiation therapy is one of the major subsets of cancer treatments. Normal tissue toxicity and tumor cell resistance are two main obstacles during radiotherapy treatments. Toxicity to healthy tissue limits the applied dose, resulting in inadequate tumor control. On the other hand, the resistances of cancer cells lead to increased doses of radiotherapy. Therefore, agents that can simultaneously reduce the toxicity of normal tissues and increase the sensitivity of tumor cells to radiotherapy could be a potential solution to increase the efficiency of radiotherapy during cancer treatment. Many studies have found that atorvastatin, as an HMG coenzyme A reductase (HMG-CoA) inhibitor, and protects normal tissue while sensitizing cancer cells to radiotherapy via various molecular mechanisms and signaling pathways. This review summarizes the evidence for radioprotective and radiosensitivity effects of atorvastatin in vitro and in vivo studies.