Statins use and its impact in EGFR‐TKIs resistance to prolong the survival of lung cancer patients: A Cancer registry cohort study in Taiwan

Abstract

Statins have been shown to be a beneficial treatment as chemotherapy and target therapy for lung cancer. This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of statins in combination with epidermal growth factor receptor‐tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy for the resistance and mortality of lung cancer patients. A population‐based cohort study was conducted using the Taiwan Cancer Registry database. From January 1, 2007, to December 31, 2012, in total 792 non‐statins and 41 statins users who had undergone EGFR‐TKIs treatment were included in this study. All patients were monitored until the event of death or when changed to another therapy. Kaplan‐Meier estimators and Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to calculate overall survival. We found that the mortality was significantly lower in patients in the statins group compared with patients in the non‐statins group (4‐y cumulative mortality, 77.3%; 95% confidence interval (CI), 36.6%‐81.4% vs. 85.5%; 95% CI, 78.5%‐98%; P = .004). Statin use was associated with a reduced risk of death in patients the group who had tumor sizes <3 cm (hazard ratio [HR], 0.51, 95% CI, 0.29‐0.89) and for patients in the group who had CCI scores <3 (HR, 0.6; 95% CI, 0.41‐0.88; P = .009). In our study, statins were found to be associated with prolonged survival time in patients with lung cancer who were treated with EGFR‐TKIs and played a synergistic anticancer role.

Patterns of age disparities in colon and lung cancer survival: a systematic narrative literature review

“… 52 A study that focused on the relationship of statin use and survival in patients with lung cancer who received Epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR-TKI) therapy, showed greater age disparities in the statin group than in the non-statin group. 69 …”

Statins: a repurposed drug to fight cancer

“…Recent clinical studies have shown that high-intensity statins are associated with improved clinical activity of PD-1 inhibitors, and the combined application can improve the prognosis of patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma and advanced non-small cell lung cancer [ 69 ]. A recent cohort study from Taiwan has shown that statins are associated with increased survival in lung cancer patients treated with epidermal growth factor receptor-tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR-TKIs) and exert synergistic anti-cancer effects [ 304 ]. Similarly, another cohort study of 1,835 patients with gastric cancer from Taiwan, suggested that the statin use improves the overall survival of patients with gastric cancer after surgery and adjuvant chemotherapy [ 60 ].…”

Time-dependent propensity-matched general population study of the effects of statin use on cancer risk in an interstitial lung disease and pulmonary fibrosis cohort

“…Third, the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), which is associated with hepatoma-related virus infections involving viruses such as HBV and HCV, is involved in the association of coronavirus with ILD and pulmonary fibrosis (eg, IPF). 22 23 Nguyen et al 24 reported that statins may play a supportive role in attenuating the effect of EGFR overexpression in patients with cancer. Collectively, the aforementioned findings indicate that statins are associated with a lower risk of immunological cancers in patients with ILD and pulmonary fibrosis, which are closely associated with virus infections.…”