Evidence map›Paper›PMID 32572715›Full record

ArticleBreast cancer research and treatment2020

Statin use and breast cancer recurrence in postmenopausal women treated with adjuvant aromatase inhibitors: a Danish population-based cohort study.

Sixten Harborg, Uffe Heide-Jørgensen, Thomas P Ahern, Marianne Ewertz, Deirdre Cronin-Fenton, Signe Borgquist

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Article in Breast cancer research and treatment, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
33citing papers in PubMed, 5 pooled it
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1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

33 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Statins and prognosis of female breast cancer: a meta-analysis.Clinical & translational oncology : official publication of the Federation of Spanish Oncology Societies and of the National Cancer Institute of Mexico · 2025
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors.

Sixten HarborgDepartment of Oncology, Aarhus University Hospital/Aarhus University, Entrance C, Level 1, C118, Palle Juul-Jensens Boulevard 99, 8200, Aarhus N, Denmark. sixten.harborg@oncology.au.dk.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9512-9418
Uffe Heide-JørgensenDepartment of Clinical Epidemiology, Aarhus University, Aarhus N, Denmark.
Thomas P AhernDepartment of Surgery, University of Vermont, Burlington, USA.
Marianne EwertzOncology Research Unit, Institute of Clinical Research, University of Southern Denmark, Odense C, Denmark.
Deirdre Cronin-FentonDepartment of Clinical Epidemiology, Aarhus University, Aarhus N, Denmark.
Signe BorgquistDepartment of Oncology, Aarhus University Hospital/Aarhus University, Entrance C, Level 1, C118, Palle Juul-Jensens Boulevard 99, 8200, Aarhus N, Denmark.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

purposeTo examine the association between statin use and risk of breast cancer recurrence in a national Danish cohort of postmenopausal breast cancer patients receiving aromatase inhibitors (AI) in the adjuvant setting. PATIENTS AND

methodsWe enrolled all postmenopausal patients diagnosed with stage I-III estrogen receptor positive breast cancer during the years 2007-2017, assigned adjuvant AI treatment, and registered in both the Danish Breast Cancer Group database and the Danish Cancer Registry. We ascertained incident statin exposure (≥ 1 prescription post-diagnosis) from the Danish National Prescription Registry and modeled statins as a time-varying exposure lagged by 6 months. Follow-up began 7 months after diagnosis and continued to the first event of recurrence, death, emigration, 5 years elapsed, or 25th September 2018. We estimated incidence rates of recurrence at 5 years and used Cox regression models to compute crude and adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI), comparing statin exposure with non-exposure.

resultsWe enrolled 14,773 eligible patients. During the 5 years of follow-up, there were 32 recurrences in 3163 person-years of follow-up among statin-exposed patients, and 612 recurrences in 45,655 person-years among unexposed patients (incidence rate per 1000 person-years: 10.12 [95% CI 6.92-14.28] and 13.40 [95% CI 12.36-14.51], respectively). In multivariable models, any statin exposure was associated with a reduced rate of 5-year breast cancer recurrence (adjusted HR 0.72 [95% CI 0.50-1.04]). Considering only lipophilic statins as exposure the results were similar (adjusted HR 0.70 [95% CI 0.48-1.02]).

conclusionsStatin use was associated with a reduced risk of breast cancer recurrence among postmenopausal patients diagnosed with early stage breast cancer who received adjuvant AI therapy.

Indexed as

Chemotherapy, AdjuvantEstrogensAgedAntineoplastic Agents, HormonalAromatase InhibitorsBreast NeoplasmsCombined Modality TherapyDenmarkFemaleHumansHydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase InhibitorsMastectomyMiddle AgedNeoplasms, Hormone-DependentPostmenopauseProportional Hazards ModelsAntineoplastic Agents, HormonalAromatase InhibitorsEstrogensHydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase InhibitorsAromatase inhibitorsBreast cancerCohort studyEndocrine therapyStatins

Identifiers

PMID32572715
PMCPMC7376511

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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.