Statin use and the risk of kidney cancer: a population-based case–control study

Abstract

Objective: To investigate whether the use of statins was associated with kidney cancer risk.Methods: We conducted a population-based case–control study in Taiwan. Cases consisted of all patients who were aged 50 years and older, and had a first-time diagnosis of kidney cancer for the period between 2005 and 2009. The controls were matched to cases by age, sex, and index date. Adjusted odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated by using multiple logistic regression.Results: We examined 177 kidney cancer cases and 708 controls. The adjusted OR for any statin prescription was 1.08 (95% CI = 0.70 – 1.67). Compared with no use of statins, the adjusted ORs were 0.91 (95% CI = 0.50 – 1.63) for the group having been prescribed statins with cumulative defined daily dose (DDDs) below 105 and 1.28 (95% CI = 0.73 – 2.23) for the group with cumulative statin use of 105 DDDs or more.Conclusions: The present data do not provide evidence to support either beneficial or harmful associations between statin use and kidney cancer risk. However, there is a trend of increased kidney cancer risk with higher cumulative DDDs, and consequently that it is prudent to continue monitoring cancer incidence among long-standing statin users.