Evaluation of the Association Between Statin Exposure and Skin Cancer: A Nationwide Case-Control Study in South Korea

Several studies have reported the association between statin use and skin cancer; however, the results have been conflicting. Furthermore, no large-scale studies have reported the relationship between statin exposure and skin cancer in Asian countries.

The aim of this study was to investigate the association between statin exposure and skin cancer in Korea.

This nationwide population-based case-control study used data from the National Health Insurance Service database between 2007 and 2018. We enrolled 109,327 patients in the skin cancer group and extracted 109,327 controls using 1:1 propensity score matching. Data on statin exposure within 5 years were collected, and multivariable-adjusted conditional logistic regression analysis was performed.

Statin exposure was present in 29.6% of patients in the skin cancer group and 22.3% of patients in the control group, with a statistically significant difference between the two groups. The adjusted odds ratio (OR) (95% confidence interval [CI]) for the association between statin exposure and skin cancer was 1.71 (1.67-1.75). All types of statins, especially lipophilic statins (adjusted OR, 1.58; 95% CI, 1.54-1.62), were associated with skin cancer. However, the association with skin cancer was not statistically significantly different between lipophilic and hydrophilic statins. Subgroup analyses according to age, sex and comorbidity showed a significant association between statin exposure and skin cancer, regardless of subgroup.

Our study revealed an association between statin exposure and skin cancer in Korea.