Bottom Line :
Journal in Which the Study was Published: Cancer Epidemiology , Biomarkers & Prevention , a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research
Author :
Background :
How the Study Was Conducted: Cardwell and colleagues used data from nearly 14,000 patients newly diagnosed with lung cancer between 1998 and 2009 from English cancer registry data. They gathered the patients' prescription records from the U.K. Clinical Practice Research Datalink and mortality data up to 2012 from the Office of National Statistics.
Results: Among patients who survived at least six months after a diagnosis, those who used statins after a lung cancer diagnosis had a statistically nonsignificant 11 percent reduction in lung cancer-specific deaths. Among those who used at least 12 prescriptions of statins there was a statistically significant 19 percent reduction in lung cancer-specific deaths, and among those who used lipophilic statins such as simvastatin there was a 19 percent reduction in lung cancer-specific deaths as well.
Among all patients in the study, those who used statins in the year before a lung cancer diagnosis had a statistically significant 12 percent reduction in lung cancer-specific deaths.
Cardwell noted that the outcomes were not different between non-small cell lung cancer patients and small cell lung cancer patients in this study.
Author Comment :
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Funding & Disclosures: This study was funded by the Health and Social Care Research and Development Division of the Public Health Agency of Northern Ireland. Cardwell declares no conflicts of interest.
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About the American Association for Cancer Research
To interview Chris Cardwell, please contact Claire O'Callaghan at c.ocallaghan@qub.ac.uk or +44-028-9097-5391. For other inquiries, contact Lauren Riley at lauren.riley@aacr.org or 215-446-7155.