Statin use in primary inflammatory breast cancer: a cohort study

Abstract

Background:Some studies have suggested that statins, which have cholesterol-lowering and anti-inflammatory properties, may have antitumor effects. Effects of statins on inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) have never been studied.Methods:We reviewed 723 patients diagnosed with primary IBC in 1995–2011 and treated at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Statin users were defined as being on statins at the initial evaluation. Based on Ahern et al's statin classification (JNCI, 2011), clinical outcomes were compared by statin use and type (weakly lipophilic to hydrophilic (H-statin) vs lipophilic statins (L-statin)). We used the Kaplan–Meier method to estimate the median progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS) and disease-specific survival (DSS), and a Cox proportional hazards regression model to test the statistical significance of potential prognostic factors.Results:In the multivariable Cox model, H-statins were associated with significantly improved PFS compared with no statin (hazard ratio=0.49; 95% confidence interval=0.28–0.84; P<0.01); OS and DSS P-values were 0.80 and 0.85, respectively. For L-statins vs no statin, P-values for PFS, DSS, and OS were 0.81, 0.4, and 0.74, respectively.Conclusion:H-statins were associated with significantly improved PFS. A prospective randomised study evaluating the survival benefits of statins in primary IBC is warranted.

The relationship between statins and breast cancer prognosis varies by statin type and exposure time: a meta-analysis

“…Two previous studies performed meta-analyses but suffered obvious limitations in terms of an insufficient number of included studies and the lack of unified end points [8,9]. Some articles have previously shown that different statin types may have different effects on breast cancer incidence [3][4][5] and prognosis [5,[10][11][12]19]. Thus, we preformed the current meta-analysis using mortality as the unified end point; moreover, we sought to explore the different influences of statin types and different follow-up times on the prognosis of breast cancer.…”

Statins and risk of breast cancer recurrence.

“…Statin use was found to be associated with increased overall DFS, in line with previous studies exploring the impact of statin use in breast cancer patients. 28,[33][34][35][36] Pre-or postdiagnosis statin studies have already shown a beneficial effect on survival 34,36 but not all of them. 28,33,35 Even in the latter case, where the studies showed no effect on survival, subgroups revealed any significant beneficial correlations; however, the number of patients in each subgroup was too small to draw definite conclusions, and the results should be interpreted with extreme caution.…”

Statins are potential anticancerous agents (Review)

“…A review of 723 patients diagnosed with primary inflammatory breast cancer in 1995-2011 showed that hydrophilic statins were associated with significantly improved progression-free survival (PFS) rates (47). However, long-term use of statins was associated with increased risk of invasive ductal carcinoma (IdC; n=916) and invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC; n=1,068) in a contemporary population-based case-control study conducted in the Seattle-Puget Sound region.…”