Statins linked to lower risk of early death in patients with colorectal cancer

09. 05. 2019 | Wiley Press Release


Use of statins before or after a diagnosis of colorectal cancer was linked with a lower risk of premature death, both from cancer and from other causes, in a Cancer Medicine analysis of published studies [1].

Statins linked to lower risk of early death in patients with colorectal cancer

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The meta-analysis included 14 studies involving 130,994 patients with colorectal cancer. Pre-diagnosis statin use was linked with a 15 percent lower risk of dying early from any cause and an 18 percent lower risk of dying from cancer. Post-diagnosis statin use was linked with a 14 percent lower risk of all-cause death and a 21 percent lower risk of cancer-specific death.

“Considering that statins are low-costed and wildly-used agents worldwide, we believe our updated meta-analysis can provide new insights into optimising adjuvant treatment of colorectal cancer,” the authors wrote.

Reference

  1. Li Y, He X, Ding Y, Chen H, Sun L. Statin uses and mortality in colorectal cancer patients: An updated systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal Cancer Medicine 2019; 8(6):3305–3313. doi: 10.1002/cam4.2151.

Keywords: statins, colorectal cancer, early death, meta-analysis

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