ArticleJournal of the National Cancer Institute2008
The association between statins and cancer incidence in a veterans population.
Article in Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 97 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
97 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 197 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Effect of Statins on the Incidence and Prognosis of Bladder Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Current oncology (Toronto, Ont.) · 2023Pooled it
- Statins and the risk of colorectal cancer: an updated systematic review and meta-analysis of 40 studies.World journal of gastroenterology · 2014Pooled it
- Statin use is not associated with reduced risk of skin cancer: a meta-analysis.British journal of cancer · 2014Pooled it
- Statin use and risk of lung cancer: a meta-analysis of observational studies and randomized controlled trials.PloS one · 2013Pooled it
- Statins and the risk of lung cancer: a meta-analysis.PloS one · 2013Pooled it
- Pooled it
- A Randomized Phase II Study of Irinotecan Plus Cisplatin with or without Simvastatin in Ever-Smokers with Extended Disease Small Cell Lung Cancer.Cancer research and treatment · 2023Trial
- The Effect of Atorvastatin on Breast Cancer Biomarkers in High-Risk Women.Cancer prevention research (Philadelphia, Pa.) · 2016Trial
- Effects on 11-year mortality and morbidity of lowering LDL cholesterol with simvastatin for about 5 years in 20,536 high-risk individuals: a randomised controlled trial.Lancet (London, England) · 2011Trial
- Fluvastatin reduces proliferation and increases apoptosis in women with high grade breast cancer.Breast cancer research and treatment · 2010Trial
- Association between statin use and risk for keratinocyte carcinoma in the veterans affairs topical tretinoin chemoprevention trial.Annals of internal medicine · 2009Trial
- Real-world evidence on the additional cancer risk reduction of ezetimibe: a 10-year nationwide retrospective cohort study emulating a target trial.Journal of cancer research and clinical oncology · 2025Article
- Lipid traits and lipid-lowering drug target genes and risk of melanoma: a mendelian randomization study.Archives of dermatological research · 2024Article
- Harnessing Oxylipins and Inflammation Modulation for Prevention and Treatment of Colorectal Cancer.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Review
- Long-term use of anti-cholesterol drugs and cancer risks in a Japanese population.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Review
- Article
- [STE029 Overcomes EGFR-TKI Resistance in Human Lung Adenocarcinoma].Zhongguo fei ai za zhi = Chinese journal of lung cancer · 2022Article
- Innovations in Evaluating Statin Benefit and Efficacy inInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2022Review
- Optimizing the use of adjuvant chemotherapy in non-small cell lung cancer patients with comorbidities.Current problems in cancer · 2022Article
37 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
- Commented on by
- Commented on by
Authors and funding
7 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundMeta-analyses of trials of 3-hydroxy-3-methyl-glutaryl-CoA reductase inhibitors or statins for cardiovascular disease prevention have failed to show any statistically significant benefit of statins for cancer prevention. However, these trials included relatively young participants, who develop few cancers, and their follow-up periods may have been too short to detect an association between statin use and cancer incidence. We investigated this association in a population of veterans.
methodsWe identified patients using antihypertensive medications but no cholesterol-lowering medications (n = 25,594) and patients using statins (n = 37,248) who were enrolled in the Veterans Affairs New England Healthcare System between January 1, 1997, and December 31, 2005. Age- and multivariable-adjusted Cox proportional hazards models were used to calculate the hazard ratio (HR) and its 95% confidence interval (CI) for cancer incidence, excluding nonmelanoma skin cancer, among patients taking statins compared with patients taking antihypertensive medications and among patients grouped by statin dose (as equivalent simvastatin dose). All statistical tests were two-sided.
resultsThe absolute incidence of total cancers was 9.4% among statin users and 13.2% among nonusers (difference = 3.8%, 95% CI = 3.3% to 4.3%, P(difference) < .001). Statin users had a statistically significant lower risk for total cancer than nonusers after adjustment for age (HR = 0.76, 95% CI = 0.73 to 0.80) and multiple potential confounders (HR = 0.74, 95% CI = 0.70 to 0.78). After multivariable adjustment, a statistically significantly decreased risk of all cancers was also associated with increasing statin use (P(trend) < .001).
conclusionsPatients using statins may be at lower risk for developing cancer. Additional observational studies and randomized trials of statins for cancer prevention are warranted.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.