Ovarian cancer is the 8th most common cancer in women, and the 5th leading cause of cancer-related deaths among women in the United States. Statins have been shown to have promising anti-tumorigenic activity in many types of cancers. We sought to determine the effects of atorvastatin (ATO) on cell proliferation in ovarian cancer and identify the mechanisms by which ATO inhibits cell growth in this disease. ATO inhibited cell proliferation of both the Hey and SKOV3 ovarian cancer cells in a dose-dependent manner. The anti-proliferative activity of ATO in the ovarian cancer cell lines was associated with induction of apoptosis, autophagy, cellular stress and cell cycle G1 arrest via inhibition of AKT/mTOR and activation of the MAPK pathways. Moreover, ATO inhibited cell adhesion and invasion as well as decreased expression of VEGF and MMP9. c-Myc was downregulated in ovarian cancer cells exposed to ATO. Inhibition of c-Myc by JQ1 synergistically increased the sensitivity of ovarian cancer cells to ATO. This data suggests that ATO may have a therapeutic role in the treatment of ovarian cancer and warrant further exploration in clinical trials
