Patients Using Statins Especially Simvastatin Have Lower Cancer-Specific Mortality Rates
A population-based cohort study to investigate whether
statin users had reduced risk of lung cancer-specific mortality has provided evidence
that lung cancer patient who used statins, and particularly simvastatin, have reduced
rates of cancer-specific mortality.
Newly diagnosed lung cancer patients (~14000), from 1998 to
2009, were identified from English cancer registry data and linked to the UK
Clinical Practice Research Datalink, providing prescription records, and to
Office of National Statistics mortality data up to 2012. Cox regression models
were used to calculate HRs for cancer-specific mortality and 95% confidence
intervals (CI) by statin use before and after diagnosis, and to adjust these
HRs for potential confounders.
Following are the
findings:
1. In 3,638 lung cancer patients, there was some evidence that
statin use after diagnosis was associated with reduced lung cancer-specific
mortality (adjusted HR, 0.89; 95% CI, 0.78-1.02; P = 0.09).
2. Associations were more marked after 12 prescriptions
(adjusted HR, 0.81; 95% CI, 0.67-0.98; P = 0.03) and when lipophilic statins
were investigated (adjusted HR, 0.81; 95% CI, 0.70-0.94; P = 0.01), but were
attenuated in some sensitivity analyses.
3. In 11,051 lung cancer patients, statin use before diagnosis
was associated with reduced lung cancer-specific mortality (adjusted HR, 0.88;
95% CI, 0.83–0.93; P less than 0.001).
The authors conclude as “there
was some evidence that lung cancer patients who used statins, and particularly
simvastatin, had reduced rates of cancer-specific mortality”. They also
suggest conducting randomized controlled trials of simvastatin as adjuvant
cancer therapy in lung cancer patients.
Article citation:
Cardwell, C. R.; et. al. Statin Use and Survival from Lung Cancer: A
Population-Based Cohort Study. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2015, 24(5), 833–841.
