Takeaway
- In patients with oesophageal cancer, post-diagnosis statin use is associated with a significant decrease in overall and cancer-specific mortality.
Why this matters
- Several preclinical studies have shown that statins reduce cell growth and proliferation and increase apoptosis in oesophageal cancer.
- Recent epidemiological studies have shown interesting results but suffered from limitations.
Study design
- This observational, population-based used linked data of the Belgian Cancer Registry and included 5234 patients who were diagnosed with stage I to III oesophageal adenocarcinoma or squamous cell carcinoma from 2004-2014.
- Statin use before and after oesophageal cancer diagnosis was evaluated.
- Primary outcome was overall mortality.
- Funding: None disclosed.
Key results
- Of 5234 patients with stage I-III oesophageal cancer, 1628 (26%) were post-diagnostic statin users and 3606 (74%) were post-diagnostic non-statin users.
- Post-diagnosis statin use was associated with a reduction in overall (adjusted HR [aHR], 0.84; P<.001) and cancer-specific mortality (aHR, 0.87; P=.01).
- After sensitivity and subgroup analysis, pre-diagnosis statin use was associated with decrease in overall (aHR, 0.84; 95% CI, 0.78-0.90) and cancer-specific (aHR, 0.82; 95% CI, 0.75-0.90) mortality.
Limitations
- Some potentially important confounders were missing from the database.
References
References
