Systematic Reviews
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2017. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Meta-Anal. Apr 26, 2017; 5(2): 41-53
Published online Apr 26, 2017. doi: 10.13105/wjma.v5.i2.41
Statin use and risk of cancer: An overview of meta-analyses
Krishna Undela, Chirag S Shah, Raj K Mothe
Krishna Undela, Department of Pharmacy Practice, JSS College of Pharmacy, Jagadguru Sri Shivarathreeshwara University, Mysuru 570015, India
Chirag S Shah, Raj K Mothe, Department of Pharmacy Practice, National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, S.A.S. Nagar 160062, India
Author contributions: Undela K designed the study, done literature search, data analysis, manuscript preparation and manuscript editing; Shah CS done literature search, data extraction and manuscript review; Mothe RK done data extraction and manuscript review.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Krishna Undela, Lecturer, Department of Pharmacy Practice, JSS College of Pharmacy, Jagadguru Sri Shivarathreeshwara University, SS Nagara, Mysuru 570015, India. krishnaundela@jssuni.edu.in
Telephone: +91-99-86779870
Received: June 15, 2016
Peer-review started: June 16, 2016
First decision: July 27, 2016
Revised: January 14, 2017
Accepted: February 18, 2017
Article in press: February 20, 2017
Published online: April 26, 2017
Processing time: 314 Days and 16.3 Hours
Abstract
AIM

To conduct an overview of meta-analyses to critically appraise the evidence and present a comprehensive evaluation of the association between statin use and risk of site specific cancers.

METHODS

MEDLINE, EMBASE, the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews and Web of Science databases were searched from inception until 31st May 2016. The electronic database search was supplemented by a hand search in PROSPERO and relevant journals which are not indexed in above databases. Meta-analyses that examined the association between statin use and risk of site specific cancers were included. Two reviewers independently screened the literature, abstracted data, and assessed study quality using the Assessment of Multiple Systematic Reviews (AMSTAR) tool.

RESULTS

Overall, 38 meta-analyses covered 13 site specific cancers were included. More than half (68%) of the meta-analyses were moderate in quality with an AMSTAR score 4-7 out of a possible 11. Based on current evidence from meta-analyses, use of statin decreases the risk of certain cancers, such as colorectal (8%-12%), gastric (27%-44%), hematological (19%), liver (37%-42%), oesophageal (14%-28%), ovarian (21%) and prostate cancer (7%). On the other side, evidence from meta-analyses also suggests that there is no association between statin use and risk of bladder, breast, endometrial, kidney, lung, pancreatic and skin cancers.

CONCLUSION

This overview of meta-analyses with variable quality has been shown that the statins may have a potential role in cancer chemoprevention and reduce the risk of some site specific cancers, but not all.

Keywords: Statin; Cancer; Meta-analysis

Core tip: Statins are one of the most commonly prescribed pharmaceutical agents worldwide and atorvastatin remained the largest source of spending in the class. In recent years, emerging experimental evidence suggests that statins may have a potential role in cancer chemoprevention. However, a large number of randomized controlled trials and observational studies published to examine the association between statin use and risk of site specific cancers were given conflicting results. This overview of meta-analyses with variable quality has been shown that the statins may have a potential role in cancer chemoprevention and reduce the risk of colorectal (8%-12%), gastric (27%-44%), hematological (19%), liver (37%-42%), oesophageal (14%-28%), ovarian (21%) and prostate cancer (7%).