The Effect of Statins in Cancer Risk Reduction in Patients on Dialysis: A Population-Based Case-Control Study

To realize whether statins reduce the risk of cancer in susceptible dialysis populations, this study analyzed the relationship between statin use and cancer risk in patients on dialysis.

Patients having a history of chronic kidney disease with hemodialysis or peritoneal dialysis and receiving statin prescriptions or not were enrolled. The main outcome was cancer diagnosis. This study used univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses.

In total, 4236 individuals in the statin group and 8472 individuals in the statin nonuser group were included in the study. Multivariate Cox regression analysis revealed that statin users are significantly less likely to develop cancer than statin nonusers (adjusted hazard ratio (HR) 0.81, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.78-0.90). Subgroup analyses revealed that statin cumulative defined daily doses >365 were associated with a significantly decreased risk of cancer incidence (adjusted HR 0.59, 95% CI 0.45-0.87), and statin users have a reduced risk of respiratory, soft tissue and connective tissue, breast, gynecological, prostate, central nervous system, and lymphatic and hematopoietic cancer than nonusers.

Our population-based cohort study provides an association that statins reduce the risk of malignancy in patients on dialysis, especially with a longer treatment duration, and certain types of cancer.