Statin use is associated with improved survival in multiple myeloma: A Swedish population-based study of 4315 patients.

Abstract

Statin use has been associated with reduced cancer-specific mortality among patients with several cancer types, including multiple myeloma (MM). We aimed to further elucidate the association of statin use and dose intensity with MM survival. Using Swedish population-based national health registers, we identified all incident MM diagnoses occurring January 1, 2007 to December 31, 2013 and their drug dispensations and comorbidities. We assessed statin exposure in 6-month periods pre- and post-diagnosis, treated diagnosis as baseline for calculating survival time, and calculated hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) of exposure-related MM-specific and all-cause mortality using Cox regression. We assessed statin exposure during the entire follow-up and risk of MM-specific mortality in a nested case-control analysis. We classified dose intensity according to American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association recommendations. We ascertained 4315 MM cases during follow-up. Statin use was associated with reduced MM-specific mortality (pre-diagnosis use multivariate-adjusted HR, 95% CI: 0.83, 0.71-0.96; 6 months post-diagnosis: 0.73, 0.60-0.89; entire follow-up: 0.65, 0.52-0.80) and (more weakly) with all-cause mortality. Intensity analyses suggested a dose-response; MM-specific mortality decreased with increasing statin intensity in all time windows (eg, 6 months post-diagnosis: low [0.76 (0.56-1.03)], medium [0.73 (0.58-0.92)], high [0.33 (0.08-1.32)] intensity). However, relatively few patients received high intensity treatment, and the trend was statistically significant only for unadjusted pre-diagnosis use. In this large population-based MM cohort, statin use was associated with improved MM-specific survival in both sexes. Randomized prospective studies are warranted to evaluate statins as adjuvant treatment in MM.