Women who take cholesterol-lowering statins have been found to have a lower risk of dying from cancer, according to a large new study.

The 15-year study, presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting in Chicago this week, tracked nearly 150,000 post-menopausal women — more than 3,100 of whom died of cancer over that time.

Those who reported taking the cholesterol-lowering drugs were 20 percent less likely to have died of cancer than those who were not taking the drugs, Medical Xpress reports.

Lead researcher Ange Wang, M.D., of the Stanford University School of Medicine said her team was "very excited" by the results, but added that more research needs to be done before concluding statins can combat cancer.

"I think it should be a priority given how common statins are and how much their use has expanded, and how prevalent cancer is," she said.

Richard Roope, M.D., of Cancer Research U.K., added that the research "doesn't prove that post-menopausal women should take statins to lower their risk of dying from cancer. We don't know for sure if the link shown between a decreased risk of dying from cancer, and statin use, is due to the drugs themselves, or some other reason."