Post-diagnosis statin use and survival among lung cancer patients in the Military Health System

There have been no studies examining the relationship between statin use and lung cancer survival in the U.S. Military Health System (MHS), a universal healthcare system. This study assessed whether statin use after lung cancer diagnosis is associated with overall survival among MHS beneficiaries with lung cancer.

This study was based on the Military Cancer Epidemiology (MilCanEpi) database, a database linking the DoD's Central Cancer Registry (CCR) and the MHS Data Repository (MDR). The study subjects were MHS beneficiaries diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Information on statin use was extracted from the database. Time-dependent Cox proportional hazard regression model was used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95 % confidence intervals (95 % CIs) comparing post-diagnosis use of statin relative to non-users.

Among the 5096 patients, 864 patients used a statin after NSCLC diagnosis. Compared to individuals who never used statin, increased cumulative use of statin (per one-year of use) among the users conferred a significantly improved survival with an adjusted HR of 0.82 (95 % CI=0.75-0.90). In stratified analysis, the survival benefit or its tendency associated with increased cumulative use was observed regardless of age, race, sex, tumor stage, comorbidity index or baseline use.

Post-diagnosis statin use was associated with improved survival among NSCLC patients in a universal healthcare system.