Introduction: Statins are widely prescribed drugs with established efficacy in primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular events. Although they are mostly well tolerated, several authors have been emphasizing that the statins' safety profile is not totally clarified especially when considering risk of cancer in patients with long-term exposure to statins. This meta-analysis was aimed at evaluating the risk of cancer in patients with prolonged exposure to statins.
Methods: Medline, Cochrane library, and clinicaltrials.gov were searched in order to identify studies with a minimum average follow-up of 10 years of exposure to statins and a cancer-related outcome reported. Relative risk (RR) of the primary outcomes and the combined effect was presented using a random-effects model. In the selected randomized control trials (RCT), statin exposure was compared with placebo, and in the selected observational studies, it was compared with no exposure to statins.
Results: We retrieved 1627 studies, of which 15 full-papers were included for final review, five RCT, two cohort studies (CSs), and eight case-control studies (CCs), representing a total of 358 544 patients. Five RCT, two cohort studies (CSs), and eight case-control studies (CCs). No significant differences were found regarding risk of cancer occurrence (RR = 1.08, 0.96-1.21) or cancer mortality (RR = 0.91, 0.80-1.04) due to long-term statin exposure. Regarding all-cause mortality, a protective effect was found (RR = 0.93, 0.90-0.97).
Conclusions: According to available and published evidence, statins are not associated with an increased risk of cancer after prolonged exposure. These findings strengthen the role of statins in the primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular events.
Keywords: cancer; drug Safety; pharmacoepidemiology; statins.
© 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.