Statin use is associated with a reduced risk of colon cancer recurrence

Abstract

4114 Background: A significant body of data suggests that statin use reduces the risk of developing colon and other cancers, although other data have not confirmed these findings. We examined whether statin use helps prevent recurrence of colon cancer in patients with resected disease. Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of patients treated for stage I, II, and III colon cancer in a Minneapolis/St. Paul health system. Incident cases of colon cancer between 1995 and the present were identified through a hospital tumor registry. All identified cases were then cross-checked against an HMO membership database. Data regarding statin use was pulled from the HMO outpatient pharmacy database. For each patient all available data from a 5-year window prior to first diagnosis of cancer until either recurrence or most recent data available was obtained. Demographic data and survival data from the tumor registry were then combined with pharmacy data regarding statin use in a single database for analysis. Recurrence and time to recurrent disease were compared in statin users and non-users. Results: A total of 358 colon cancer cases were available for analysis. Median follow up of patients after diagnosis of colon cancer was 49 months. 89 patients (24.9%) used statin drugs for some period of time with a median of 780 days of use. Median age of all patients enrolled was 69 (range 24–95). Statin use was higher in patients ages 61–75 (33%) than in those aged 24–60 (22%) or those aged 76–95 (19%) (p=0.02). There was no association between statin use and stage at diagnosis. 6 of 89 patients (6.7%) with any statin use relapsed as opposed to 43 of 269 (16%) of patients with no statin use (Fisher’s exact p=0.03). Kaplan-Meier analysis of relapse curves found a significant difference in relapse between groups with a two year recurrence rate of 3.7% among statin users and 10.1% among non users (Log Rank p=0.03, using age stratification). Conclusions: Statin use was associated with a decreased risk of recurrence in patients diagnosed with stages I-III colon cancer in this study. Further study of statin use in the prevention of colon cancer recurrence is warranted. No significant financial relationships to disclose.