Statins use and the prognosis of colorectal cancer: a meta-analysis

Previous observational studies regarding the prognostic value of statin on colorectal cancer (CRC) patients showed various results.

Articles regarding the prognostic value of statin on CRC and published in English and before October 2020 were searched in the following databases: PubMed, Web of Science, EMBASE, Medline and Google Scholar. The multivariate hazard ratios (HRs) and their 95% confidence intervals (CI) were computed to explore associations between statins use and overall mortality or cancer-specific mortality of CRC.

The study included 5 retrospective case-control studies (including 475 statins users and 1925 no-statin users) and 11 prospective cohort studies (including 40659 statins users and 344459 no-statin users). The present study showed that statins use might be significantly associated with lower overall mortality in CRC with a random effects model (HR = 0.81, 95% CI 0.76 to 0.86, I² = 61.9%, p value for Q test <0.001). In addition, statins use might be significantly associated with lower cancer-specific mortality in CRC with a random effects model (HR = 0.78, 95% CI 0.72 to 0.85, I² = 57.3%, p value for Q test = 0.007).

In conclusion, the present study indicated that that statin use was a protective factor for CRC prognosis. However, the relationship between statins use and CRC prognosis requires repeated and large prospective studies to be verified.