Statin Use and Risk of Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatotic Liver Disease: A...

Statins may reduce hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) risk regardless of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) status. However, it remains unclear whether long-term statin use in patients with MASLD lowers HCC risk to levels seen in individuals without steatotic liver disease (SLD). This study examined the impact of long-term statin use on HCC risk in MASLD compared with those without SLD. We used the Korean National Health Insurance database including 251,061 adults aged ≥40 years. Hepatic steatosis was defined using a fatty liver index cutoff of 30. Statin use was defined as cumulative prescribed days for 4 years, and participants were grouped by statin duration and MASLD status. Multivariate Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate adjusted hazard ratios (aHR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) for HCC incidence from 2011 to 2019, during which 812 events occurred. Long-term statin use was associated with a reduced risk of HCC. Overall, the MASLD group exhibited a higher HCC risk compared with the non-SLD group. However, we found that the HCC risk in the MASLD group that used statins for more than 180 days was lower than that of the statin non-users without SLD (aHR, 0.64; 95% CI, 0.42-0.97).Statins showed a protective effect against HCC regardless of MASLD status, suggesting that long-term statin use may mitigate the impact of hepatic steatosis on HCC development. Further clinical trials are needed to validate the effect of statin therapy in reducing HCC risk in patients with MASLD.

This study suggests that statin use may meaningfully reduce HCC risk in patients with MASLD, supporting a feasible chemopreventive strategy. Given statins' accessibility and favorable safety profile, their targeted use could help reduce the HCC burden, while further studies are warranted to confirm causality and elucidate underlying mechanisms.