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Statin use after diagnosis is associated with an increased survival in esophageal cancer patients: a Belgian population-based study

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Abstract

Purpose

Preclinical studies have shown that statins reduce proliferation in esophageal cancer. Three recent observational studies have shown encouraging results but suffered from limitations. This work aimed to assess at the Belgian population level whether statin usage was associated with a decreased mortality in esophageal cancer patients.

Methods

We conducted an observational, population-based study by linking data of the Belgian Cancer Registry (BCR) with medical claims data coming from health insurance companies and mortality records collected by regional governments for patients diagnosed with esophageal cancer between 2004 and 2014. Using time-dependent Cox regression models, hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for overall and cancer-specific mortality were calculated.

Results

Of 6,238 patients with stage I-III esophageal cancer, post-diagnostic use of statins was found in 1,628 (26%) patients. Statins use after diagnosis was associated with a reduction in overall mortality (adjusted HR = 0.84, 95% CI [0.77; 0.92]) and cancer-specific mortality (adjusted HR = 0.87, 95% CI [0.78; 0.97]). Similar association were also seen for pre-diagnostic statin use in overall (adjusted HR = 0.83, 95% CI [0.76–0.91]) and cancer-specific analysis (adjusted HR = 0.86, 95% CI [0.77–0.96]).

Conclusions

In this large cohort of Belgian patients with esophageal cancer, statins use after diagnosis was associated with a decreased mortality.

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Acknowledgments

We thank for this publication the Belgian Cancer Registry collaborators who were involved in the data collection and the research team for their expertise. We also sincerely thank the Intermutualistic Agency IMA-AIM, the Belgian Crossroads bank for Social Security (BCSS) and the Belgian regions for providing the data that made this research possible.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Pôle d’Épidémiologie et Biostatistique, Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL), Institut de Recherche Expérimentale et Clinique (IREC), Clos Chapelle-aux-champs, 30 bte B1.30.13, 1200, Brussels, Belgium

    Olivia Lacroix, Alexandra Couttenier & Annie Robert

  2. Research Department, Belgian Cancer Registry, Rue Royale 215, 1210, Brussels, Belgium

    Evelien Vaes & Harlinde De Schutter

  3. Cancer Epidemiology and Health Services Research Group, Centre for Public Health, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, BT12 6BA, Northern Ireland, UK

    Chris R. Cardwell

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  1. Olivia Lacroix
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Correspondence to Olivia Lacroix.

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Lacroix, O., Couttenier, A., Vaes, E. et al. Statin use after diagnosis is associated with an increased survival in esophageal cancer patients: a Belgian population-based study. Cancer Causes Control 30, 385–393 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-019-01149-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-019-01149-3

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