Statin Use in Relation to Prostate Cancer Outcomes in a Population-based Patient Cohort Study

BACKGROUND. We investigated associations between statin use begun before prostate cancer (PCa) diagnosis and PCa recurrence/progression and PCa-specific mortality (PCSM) in a prospective, population-based cohort study. METHODS. The analysis included 1,001 PCa patients diagnosed in 2002-2005 in King County, Washington. Statin use was assessed at the time of diagnosis using a detailed in-person interview. Prostate cancer recurrence/progression events and cause-specific survival were ascertained from a follow-up survey and the SEER registry. Multivariable competing risk and Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to assess the risk of PCa outcomes according to categories of statin use. RESULTS. Of the 1,001 PCa patients in our study, 289 men were ever users of statin drugs. During follow-up, we identified 151 PCa recurrence/progression events and 123 total deaths, including 39 PCa-specific deaths. In unadjusted analysis, the risk of PCSM was significantly lower for statin users compared to non-users (1% vs. 5% at 10 years; P <0.01). In multivariable analysis, the adjusted hazard ratio of PCSM for statin users versus non-users was 0.19 (95% CI: 0.06, 0.56). Statin use was not associated with overall PCa recurrence/progression and other-cause mortality. CONCLUSIONS. Statin use begun before PCa diagnosis was unrelated to PCa recurrence/progression but was associated with a decrease in risk of PCSM.