%0 Journal Article
%T Exposure to statins and risk of common cancers: a series of nested case-control studies
%A Yana Vinogradova
%A Carol Coupland
%A Julia Hippisley-Cox
%J BMC Cancer
%D 2011
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1471-2407-11-409
%X A series of nested case-control studies was conducted covering 574 UK general practices within the QResearch database. Cases were patients with primary cancers diagnosed between 1998 and 2008. The associations between statin use and risk of ten site-specific cancers were estimated with conditional logistic regression adjusted for co-morbidities, smoking status, socio-economic status, and use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, cyclo-oxygenase-2 inhibitors and aspirin.88125 cases and 362254 matched controls were analysed. The adjusted odds ratio for any statin use and cancer at any site were 1.01 (95%CI 0.99 to 1.04). For haematological malignancies there was a significant reduced risk associated with any statin use (odds ratio 0.78, 95%CI 0.71 to 0.86). Prolonged (more than 4 years) use of statins was associated with a significantly increased risk of colorectal cancer (odds ratio 1.23, 95%CI 1.10 to 1.38), bladder cancer (odds ratio 1.29, 95%CI 1.08 to 1.54) and lung cancer (odds ratio 1.18, 95%CI 1.05 to 1.34). There were no significant associations with any other cancers.In this large population-based case-control study, prolonged use of statins was not associated with an increased risk of cancer at any of the most common sites except for colorectal cancer, bladder cancer and lung cancer, while there was a reduced risk of haematological malignancies.Multiple randomised controlled trials have demonstrated the benefits of statins in improving survival for patients with ischaemic heart disease [1-5] and this has caused a substantial increase in statin use. While there are definite benefits from statins in reduction of mortality in high risk patients, uncertainties remain about whether statins might increase or decrease the risk of cancer[6-8]. This is important because statins are prescribed for extended periods to large numbers of patients.The effect of long-term statin use is quite complex because the multiple properties of statins go beyond lipid lowering. T
%U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2407/11/409