This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Data show that statin use does not increase risk for cancer
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
The use of statins to lower LDL does not increase a patient’s risk for cancer, results from a meta-analysis suggested.
Researchers from Tufts Medical School in Boston conducted an analysis of 15 randomized controlled statin trials with ≥1,000 person years of follow-up and information about on-treatment LDL levels and incident cancer rates. The analysis included 19 statin arms and 14 control arms, with a total of 437,017 person years of follow-up.
The researchers reported an inverse relationship between on-treatment serum LDL levels and incident cancer in the statin arms, with 2.2 (95% CI, 0.7-3.6) cancers per 100,000 person years for each 10 mg/dL decrement in LDL. They also observed an inverse relationship between on-treatment LDL levels and incident cancer in the control arms with 1.2 cancers per 1,000 person years (95% CI, –0.2 to 2.7).
However, in an unadjusted meta-analysis, the researchers reported that statin use was not associated with an increase in cancer rates compared with the control arms (0.0 cancers per 1,000 person years; 95% CI, –0.7 to 0.7). They reported similar results after adjustment for on-treatment LDL levels in each trial and each arm (0.2 cancers per 1,000 person years; 95% CI, –5.1 to 5.6).
“We observed that the previously reported overall neutral effect of statins on cancer risk holds true for any given level of on-treatment LDL,” the researchers wrote. “Taken together, these findings indicate that despite observed inverse association between on-treatment LDL levels and incident cancer, the LDL-lowering effect of statins is not associated with an increased risk of cancer, at least over the time frame evaluated here.”
J Am Coll Cardiol. 2008;doi:10.1016/j.jacc.2008.06.037.
Click here to read perspective on statins and risk for cancer from a HemOncToday.com blogger.