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Statin use and breast cancer survival - A Swedish nationwide study

Borgquist, Signe LU ; Broberg, Per LU ; Tojjar, Jasaman LU and Olsson, Håkan LU orcid (2019) In BMC Cancer 19(1).
Abstract

Background: A sizeable body of evidence suggests that statins can cease breast cancer progression and prevent breast cancer recurrence. The latest studies have, however, not been supportive of such clinically beneficial effects. These discrepancies may be explained by insufficient power. This considerably sized study investigates the association between both pre- and post-diagnostic statin use and breast cancer outcome. Methods: A Swedish nation-wide retrospective cohort study of 20,559 Swedish women diagnosed with breast cancer (July 1st, 2005 through 2008). Dispensed statin medication was identified through the Swedish Prescription Registry. Breast cancer related death information was obtained from the national cause-of-death registry... (More)

Background: A sizeable body of evidence suggests that statins can cease breast cancer progression and prevent breast cancer recurrence. The latest studies have, however, not been supportive of such clinically beneficial effects. These discrepancies may be explained by insufficient power. This considerably sized study investigates the association between both pre- and post-diagnostic statin use and breast cancer outcome. Methods: A Swedish nation-wide retrospective cohort study of 20,559 Swedish women diagnosed with breast cancer (July 1st, 2005 through 2008). Dispensed statin medication was identified through the Swedish Prescription Registry. Breast cancer related death information was obtained from the national cause-of-death registry until December 31st, 2012. Cox regression models yielded hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) regarding associations between statin use and breast cancer-specific and overall mortality. Results: During a median follow-up time of 61.6 months, a total of 4678 patients died, of which 2669 were considered breast cancer related deaths. Compared to non- or irregular use, regular pre-diagnostic statin use was associated with lower risk of breast cancer related deaths (HR = 0.77; 95% CI 0.63-0.95, P = 0.014). Similarly, post-diagnostic statin use compared to non-use was associated with lower risk of breast cancer related deaths (HR = 0.83; 95% CI 0.75-0.93, P = 0.001). Conclusion: This study supports the notion that statin use is protective regarding breast cancer related mortality in agreement with previous Scandinavian studies, although less so with studies in other populations. These disparities should be further investigated to pave the way for future randomized clinical trials investigating the role of statins in breast cancer.

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Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Breast cancer, Prognosis, Statin, Survival
in
BMC Cancer
volume
19
issue
1
article number
54
publisher
BioMed Central (BMC)
external identifiers
  • pmid:30634941
  • scopus:85059835021
ISSN
1471-2407
DOI
10.1186/s12885-018-5263-z
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
e2f13ffe-5ebf-45f8-a724-71fb59c4e58d
date added to LUP
2019-01-23 12:16:39
date last changed
2024-06-11 03:02:01
@article{e2f13ffe-5ebf-45f8-a724-71fb59c4e58d,
  abstract     = {{<p>Background: A sizeable body of evidence suggests that statins can cease breast cancer progression and prevent breast cancer recurrence. The latest studies have, however, not been supportive of such clinically beneficial effects. These discrepancies may be explained by insufficient power. This considerably sized study investigates the association between both pre- and post-diagnostic statin use and breast cancer outcome. Methods: A Swedish nation-wide retrospective cohort study of 20,559 Swedish women diagnosed with breast cancer (July 1st, 2005 through 2008). Dispensed statin medication was identified through the Swedish Prescription Registry. Breast cancer related death information was obtained from the national cause-of-death registry until December 31st, 2012. Cox regression models yielded hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) regarding associations between statin use and breast cancer-specific and overall mortality. Results: During a median follow-up time of 61.6 months, a total of 4678 patients died, of which 2669 were considered breast cancer related deaths. Compared to non- or irregular use, regular pre-diagnostic statin use was associated with lower risk of breast cancer related deaths (HR = 0.77; 95% CI 0.63-0.95, P = 0.014). Similarly, post-diagnostic statin use compared to non-use was associated with lower risk of breast cancer related deaths (HR = 0.83; 95% CI 0.75-0.93, P = 0.001). Conclusion: This study supports the notion that statin use is protective regarding breast cancer related mortality in agreement with previous Scandinavian studies, although less so with studies in other populations. These disparities should be further investigated to pave the way for future randomized clinical trials investigating the role of statins in breast cancer.</p>}},
  author       = {{Borgquist, Signe and Broberg, Per and Tojjar, Jasaman and Olsson, Håkan}},
  issn         = {{1471-2407}},
  keywords     = {{Breast cancer; Prognosis; Statin; Survival}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{01}},
  number       = {{1}},
  publisher    = {{BioMed Central (BMC)}},
  series       = {{BMC Cancer}},
  title        = {{Statin use and breast cancer survival - A Swedish nationwide study}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12885-018-5263-z}},
  doi          = {{10.1186/s12885-018-5263-z}},
  volume       = {{19}},
  year         = {{2019}},
}