Statins After Colon Cancer Diagnosis May Lower Mortality Risk

(HealthDay News) — For patients with newly diagnosed colorectal cancer, statin use is associated with reduced cancer-specific mortality risk, according to a study published online Aug. 4 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Chris R. Cardwell, PhD, from Queen’s University Belfast in the United Kingdom, and colleagues identified a cohort of 7,657 patients with newly diagnosed stage I–III colorectal cancer from the National Cancer Data Repository from 1998–2009. Prescription records were obtained from the United Kingdom Clinical Practice Research Datalink. Mortality data were collected from the Office of National Statistics, and 1,647 colorectal cancer-specific deaths were identified. The correlation between statin use and the risk of colorectal cancer-specific mortality was assessed.

The researchers found that statin use after diagnosis correlated with a reduction in the risk of colorectal cancer-specific mortality (fully adjusted hazard ratio, 0.71). There was evidence of a dose-response association, with a more marked reduction for patients using statins for more than one year (adjusted hazard ratio, 0.64). Statin users after colorectal cancer diagnosis also had a reduction in all-cause mortality (fully adjusted hazard ratio, 0.75).

“In this large population-based cohort, statin use after diagnosis of colorectal cancer was associated with longer rates of survival,” the authors write.

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