Background: Statins have known anticarcinogenic effects; evidence for long-term statin use as effective chemoprevention for prostate cancer is inconsistent.
Methods: We conducted a population-based cohort study to examine the association between statin use and risk of prostate cancer using the Database of Clalit Health Services. A total of 66,741 eligible participants were identified at 1 January 2001 and followed through to 31 December 2009. Cox proportional hazard models were used to compute hazard ratios (HRs) of incident prostate cancer associated with statin therapy controling for patients' clinical and sociodemographic characteristics.
Results: A total of 1813 cases of prostate cancer were diagnosed. Statin use was associated with a decreased incidence of prostate cancer, the association was stronger with increasing total dose, hydrophobic statins use and longer periods of treatment. When comparing statin use of over 6 months, this association was strongest for simvastatin (HR 0.51, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.47-0.56), atorvostatin (HR 0.48, 95% CI 0.33-0.68) and rosuvastatin (HR 0.22, 95% CI 0.08-0.75).
Conclusions: Our findings suggest that prolonged statin use is associated with a reduced risk of prostate cancer; however, this was not true for all types of statin.