Statin Use and Risk of Lymphoid Neoplasms: Results from the European Case-Control Study EPILYMPH

doi:10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-05-0866

Statin Use and Risk of Lymphoid Neoplasms: Results from the European Case-Control Study EPILYMPH

¹Epidemiology, Municipal Institute of Medical Research, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain; ²Epidemiology and Cancer Registry, Catalan Institute of Oncology, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain; ³Division of Epidemiology, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany; ⁴Unit of Biological Haematology, Hematology, Dijon University Hospital, Dijon, France; ⁵Institute of Occupational Medicine, University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy; ⁶Department of Public Health, Public Health University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland; ⁷Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, Masaryk Memorial Cancer Institute, Brno, Czech Republic; ⁸Department of Pathology, Centre for Laboratory Medicine, Tampere University Hospital, Tampere, Finland; ⁹IARC, Lyon, France; and ¹⁰Servei d'Anatomia Patològica, Hospital Verge de la Cinta, Tortosa, Catalonia, Spain

Requests for reprints:
Silvia de Sanjosé, Servei d'Epidemiologia i Registre del Càncer, Institut Català d'Oncologia, Gran Via Km 2.7, 08907 L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Phone: 34-932607812; Fax: 34-932607787. E-mail: s.sanjose{at}ico.scs.es

Abstract

Background: Statins, drugs used to treat dyslipidemia, may have anticancer properties. We have evaluated lymphoma risk associated with regular statin use in an international case-control study.

Methods: This case-control study included 2,362 cases of incident B- and T-cell lymphoma from Czech Republic, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, and Spain and 2,206 hospital or population controls. Information on drug use, diagnosis at admission (for hospital controls), and putative risk factors for lymphoma was collected with personal interviews. Hospital controls admitted for diseases possibly entailing use of statins were excluded from the analysis.

Results: The odds ratio for regular statin use was 0.61 (95% confidence interval, 0.45-0.84); all major lymphoma subtypes showed similarly decreased risks. Decreased risks were observed in all centers. Duration of statin use was not associated with a greater reduction in the risk of lymphoma. Use of other lipid lowering drugs, such as fibrates, did not significantly modify the risk of lymphoma (odds ratio, 0.75; 95% confidence interval, 0.44-1.27).

Conclusion: Statin use was associated with an important reduction in lymphoma risk, adding to the growing evidence of anticancer properties of this group of drugs. These results are reassuring for the increasing number of patients taking statins on a regular basis. (Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2006;15(5):921–5)

Footnotes

Grant support: Spanish Ministry of Health grant 04-0091, RCESP 09-10, and the EC 5th Framework Program Quality of Life grant QLK4-CT-2000-00422. The German study was funded by the Federal Office for Radiation Protection grants StSch4261 and StSch4420. The Italian study was supported with funds by the Compagnia di San Paolo di Torino, Programma Oncologia 2001. The Irish study was supported by the Health Research Board.
The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked advertisement in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.
Conflict of Interest: The authors declare no conflicts of interest. The corresponding author had full access to all data in the study and had final responsibility for the decision to submit for publication.
Note: J. Fortuny has a research contract awarded by the Carlos III Institute of the Spanish Ministry of Health for medical specialists training in research.
J. Fortuny and S. de Sanjosé had full access to all the data in the study and take responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.
- Accepted March 14, 2006.
- Received November 9, 2005.
- Revision received January 17, 2006.