Statin Use After Prostate Cancer Diagnosis Lowers Risk of Death
The study included 31,790 patients diagnosed with prostate cancer. During a median follow-up of nearly 3 years, 7,365 of the men died of prostate cancer and 11,811 died from other causes.
Statin use was defined as having two or more prescriptions of statins after being diagnosed with prostate cancer. Statin use after prostate cancer diagnosis was also associated with a 19% lower risk of dying from any cause. The study did not find any significant association between the type or dose of statin and characteristics of cancer, such as clinical stage or Gleason score. However, patients who were diagnosed early in the study period or who had radical prostatectomy or endocrine therapy saw a slightly higher benefit with post-diagnostic statin use when compared to the total study group.
Further study is needed to assess whether the association found in this and similar studies is causal.
J Clin Oncol. 2017 Oct 10;35(29):3290-3297. doi: 10.1200/JCO.2016.71.8981. Epub 2017 Aug 14.