The association between statin use and prognosis in esophageal cancer patients: A meta-analysis

The impact of statin use on the survival of esophageal cancer patients remains unclear now. The aim of this study was to identify the relationship between statin use and the long-term survival of esophageal cancer patients.

The PubMed, EMBASE, and Web of Science databases were searched up to August 20, 2022, for relevant studies. The endpoints included overall survival (OS), cancer-specific survival (CSS), recurrence-free survival, and hazard ratios (HRs) with corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were pooled to assess the association between statin use and the prognosis of esophageal cancer patients. Subgroup analysis based on the pathological type (adenocarcinoma vs squamous cell carcinoma), dose of statin use and tumor stage (tumor-node-metastasis I-III vs IV) was further performed. All statistical analyses were conducted using STATA 12.0 software.

A total of 7 retrospective studies involving 25,711 participants were included in this meta-analysis. The pooled results indicated that statin use was significantly associated with improved OS (HR = 0.80, 95% CI: 0.74-0.87, P < .001), CSS (HR = 0.77, 95% CI: 0.74-0.89, P < .001), and recurrence-free survival (HR = 0.38, 95% CI: 0.16-0.87, P = .022). Furthermore, subgroup analysis stratified by the pathological type, dose of statin use and tumor stage for OS and CSS showed similar results and indicated the protective role of statin use in the prognosis of esophageal cancer patients.

Statin use is significantly associated with improved long-term survival of esophageal cancer patients and might serve as a promising prognostic indicator in esophageal cancer. However, more prospective high-quality studies are still needed to verify our findings.