Investigators who studied patients who underwent radical cystectomy (RC) for bladder cancer found that statin use was associated with improved overall and disease-specific survival compared with non-use, according to a presentation at the Canadian Urological Association’s 74th Annual Meeting in Quebec City.
The study, led by Armen G. Aprikian, MD, of McGill University Health Centre in Montreal, included 3087 patients with bladder cancer who underwent RC in Quebec from 2000 to 2014 and collected data from 2 years prior to RC to September 2016 or death. Of these patients, 1448 (46.9%) used statins. The median overall survival (OS) and disease-specific survival was 4.5 years and 10.7 years, respectively, for statin users and 2.5 years and 4.6 years for non-users.
Compared with non-users, statin users had significant 17% and 19% decreased risks of all-cause and disease-specific mortality, respectively, in multivariable analysis.
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The investigators also analysis outcomes of 2215 patients (71.8%) who had more than 1 year follow-up after RC. Of these, 1082 (48.8%) used statins. These patients had significant 19% and 19% decreased risks of all-cause and disease-specific mortality, respectively, compared with non-users, in adjusted analyses.
Dr Aprikian and colleagues found no significant difference in overall or disease-specific survival between patients who started statins after RC and those who already used statins before RC.
Previous studies looking associations between statin use and bladder cancer have yielded mixed findings. A study of 574 patients who underwent transurethral bladder resection for nonmuscle-invasive bladder cancer found that statin use was independently associated with nearly 2-fold increased odds of cancer recurrence compared with non-use, investigators reported in BMC Cancer (2015:15:120). In an earlier study published in BMC Cancer (2011;11:409), investigators who compared 88,125 cases (patients with primary cancers) and 362,254 matched controls from 574 general practices in the United Kingdom found that statin use for more than 4 years was associated with significant 29% increased odds of bladder cancer compared with non-use. Researchers who studied 1502 patients treated with RC and pelvic lymphadenectomy without neoadjuvant therapy found that statin use had no significant effect on disease recurrence and cancer-specific survival on multivariable analysis, according to findings published in The Journal of Urology (2013;190:487-492).
References
Wissing M, O’Flaherty A, Dragomir A, et al. Statin use and mortality in bladder cancer patients undergoing radical cystectomy in Quebec, 2000-2014. Presented at the Canadian Urological Association’s 74th Annual Meeting in Quebec City, June 29 to July 1. Abstract POD-4.3.
