Statin use and risk of pancreatic cancer: a meta-analysis Cancer Causes and Control, 05/09/2012

Cui X et al. – The results suggest that there is no association between statin use and pancreatic cancer risk, when statins are taken at daily doses for cardiovascular event prevention.

• The authors conducted a comprehensive search up to August 2011 for the eligible studies.
• Pooled relative risk (RR) estimates and corresponding 95 % confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated using the inverse-variance-weighted random-effects model.
• Subgroup analyses were conducted where data were available.
• Heterogeneity was assessed by the Cochran’s Q test and the I 2 statistic.

• They included 16 studies that involving 1,692,863 participants and 7,807 pancreatic cancer cases.
• Pooled results only indicated a non-significant decrease of pancreatic cancer risk among all statin users (RR 0.89; 95 % CIs, 0.74-1.07).
• Similar results were obtained in the subgroup analyses of the long-term (more than 4 years) follow-up (RR 0.94, 0.81-1.08) and statin use (RR 0.97, 0.76-1.23), and a null association was found between lipophilic statin use and pancreatic cancer risk (RR 1.03, 0.92-1.16).
• No evidence of publication bias was observed in the present meta-analysis.
• However, significant heterogeneity was detected among all studies (p < 0.00001, I 2=81 %).