SynthesisPloS one2018
Statin therapy in the treatment of active cancer: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.
Synthesis in PloS one, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 40 papers, 3 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
40 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 70 citations in OpenAlex.
- Impact of statin use on survival and adverse events in patients with cancer receiving radiotherapy: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC cancer · 2025Pooled it
- Efficacy and safety profile of statins in patients with cancer: a systematic review of randomised controlled trials.European journal of clinical pharmacology · 2020Pooled it
- Impact of statin use on cancer-specific mortality and recurrence: A meta-analysis of 60 observational studies.Medicine · 2020Pooled it
- Effect of statins on the mortality of long-term survivors of nasopharyngeal carcinoma: a population-based study in endemic area.The Lancet regional health. Western Pacific · 2026Article
- Statin exposure after multiple myeloma diagnosis and risk of all-cause mortality, venous thromboembolism, pathological fractures, and acute kidney injury: a propensity score-matched retrospective cohort study.Annals of medicine and surgery (2012) · 2026Article
- The impact of statins on prognostic outcomes in patients with non-metastatic solid cancers: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Discover oncology · 2026Review
- Metabolic reprogramming in cancer: signaling pathways and therapeutic targets.Molecular cancer · 2026Review
- Defining the cellular and molecular identities of histologic subtypes in lung adenocarcinoma.Experimental hematology & oncology · 2026Article
- Lipidomics in Melanoma: Insights into Disease Progression and Therapeutical Targets.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Cancer publications using real-world data from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database: Conceptual framework and bibliometric analysis.Journal of the Chinese Medical Association : JCMA · 2025Article
- Statins as anti-tumor agents: A paradigm for repurposed drugs.Cancer reports (Hoboken, N.J.) · 2024Review
- Review
- Exposure to Commonly Used Drugs and the Risk of Gastric Cancer: An Umbrella Review of Meta-Analyses.Cancers · 2023Review
- Statins exert anti-growth effects by suppressing YAP/TAZ expressions via JNK signal activation and eliminate the immune suppression by downregulating PD-L1 expression in pancreatic cancer.American journal of cancer research · 2023Article
- Repurposing Drugs in Small Animal Oncology.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2022Review
- In Vivo Assessments of Mesoblastic Nephroma (Ne/De) and Myelomonoblastic Leukaemia (My1/De) Tumour Development in Hypercholesterolemia Rat Models.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Article
- Statins and the risk of gastric, colorectal, and esophageal cancer incidence and mortality: a cohort study based on data from the Korean national health insurance claims database.Journal of cancer research and clinical oncology · 2022Article
- Mutant p53, the Mevalonate Pathway and the Tumor Microenvironment Regulate Tumor Response to Statin Therapy.Cancers · 2022Review
- Effects of the Prior Use of Statins on Head and Neck Cancer Risk: A Hospital-Based Case-Control Study.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPreclinical evidence suggests statins may have anti-tumor properties. Large observational studies are also consistent with improved survival and cancer-specific outcomes among cancer patients on statins. We sought to evaluate the randomized controlled trials of statins in addition to usual anti-cancer therapy.
methodsA systematic search of MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, Papers First and Clinicaltrials.gov was performed from inception through to July 4, 2017 to identify randomized clinical trials that investigated statin therapy in cancer patients. Our primary outcome was overall survival and our secondary outcome was progression-free survival. We calculated summary hazard ratio's (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) based on random-effects models using aggregate data. PROSPERO (CRD42017065503).
resultsTen studies with 1,881 individuals were included with 1,572 deaths and a median follow-up of 23 months. All trials included patients with advanced (stage 3 or higher) disease. There was minimal between-study statistical heterogeneity (I2 = 1.8%, for OS; I2 = 0%, for PFS). The pooled HR for overall survival in patients randomized to statins plus standard anti-cancer therapy versus standard therapy alone was 0.94 (95% CI, 0.85 to 1.04). In the 9 studies that reported progression-free survival (1,798 participants), the pooled HR for statin plus standard therapy versus standard therapy alone was 0.97 (95% CI, 0.87 to 1.07).
conclusionsIn patients with advanced cancer and a prognosis <2 years, the addition of statins to standard anti-cancer therapy does not appear to improve overall survival or progression-free survival. Future research should assess if cancer patients with better prognosis benefit from longer-term statin therapy.
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.