Statins Linked to Lower Cancer Rate in Heart Failure Patients

A new study provides more evidence supporting the idea that statins may have a role in the prevention of cancer.

This latest study ― conducted in 87,000 patients with heart failure ― showed that those patients who took statins had a significantly reduced risk of developing cancer or of dying from cancer.

“In this large-population study in heart failure patients, we found a 16% reduction in the incidence of cancer and a 36% reduction in cancer deaths in patients taking statins compared to those not taking statins,” senior author Kai-Hang Yiu, MD, University of Hong Kong, told Medscape Medical News.

“This is the largest study to look at the effects of statins in heart failure and the first major study to investigate cancer-related outcomes in heart failure,” Yiu added. “Our results are important, as we are seeing an increase in the incidence of cancer in heart failure patients.”

The study was published online in the European Heart Journal on June 23.

Yiu explained that patients with heart failure are having improved outcomes and are living longer because of better treatments. The reasons for mortality are shifting from cardiovascular events to noncardiovascular conditions.

“In particular, cancer deaths make up one of the most important noncardiovascular mortalities in heart failure patients. So, it is important to look for any strategies to reduce the burden of cancer in these patients,” he said.

He noted that statins have been proposed to have chemoprotective effects in other studies, and his group wanted to investigate this possibility more closely in the heart failure population.

For the study, Yiu and colleagues analyzed data from 87,102 patients in Hong Kong who were admitted to hospital with heart failure between 2003 and 2015. Patients were followed until they were diagnosed with cancer, died, or until the end of 2018, whichever came earlier.

Participants were excluded from the study if they had a history of cancer or were diagnosed with or died from cancer within 90 days of the first diagnosis of heart failure, if they had HIV, or if they had taken statins for fewer than 90 days. This left 36,176 statin users and 50,926 statin nonusers for analysis.

Results showed that during a median follow-up of 4.1 years, 11,052 patients (12.7%) were newly diagnosed with cancer, and 3863 patients (4.4%) died from cancer. The most common types of cancer were of the bowel, stomach, lung, liver, and biliary system.

Propensity-matched statin users had a lower risk of developing cancer than nonusers. The 5-year cumulative incidence of cancer was 7.9% among statin users and 10.4% among nonusers; the 10-year cumulative incidence of cancer was 11.2% among statin users and 13.2% among nonusers.

Overall, statin users had a 16% lower risk for cancer than nonusers after multivariable adjustment (hazard ratio [HR], 0.84; 95% CI, 0.80 – 0.89).

The study also showed that statin users had a significantly lower risk of dying from cancer over the same period. The 10-year cancer-related mortality was 3.8% among statin users and 5.2% among nonusers (HR, 0.74; 95% CI, 0.67 – 0.81).