Statin use linked to reduced cancer risk among heart failure patients, finds study

STATIN use is linked to a reduced risk of cancer among heart failure patients, research suggests.

Use of the medication among patients with heart failure was associated with a 16 per cent lower risk of developing cancer compared with non-statin users during an average of four years of follow-up, the study found.

Statin use was also associated with a 26% reduced risk of dying from cancer over the same period. Previous research indicates heart failure patients are at increased risk of developing cancer, possibly because heart failure may be a cancer-causing condition via shared pathways such as inflammation or genetic factors.

However, there has been little study on the associations between statin use and the risk of developing and dying from cancer in patients with heart failure. Researchers say the current observational study of more than 87,000 people in Hong Kong is the largest study to investigate this.

Dr Kai-hang Yiu, from the University of Hong Kong, who led the study, said: “Ten years after starting statins, deaths from cancer were 3.8% among heart failure patients taking statins and 5.2% among non-users – a reduction in the absolute risk of death of 1.4%. The reduction in the absolute risk of developing cancer after six years on statins was 22% lower compared to those who received only between three months and two years of statins.”

The longer people with heart failure took statins – commonly used to lower people’s cholesterol – the greater the reduction in their risk of developing cancer, the research found. Compared with taking statins for between three months and two years and after adjusting for factors that could affect the results such as age, sex, smoking, alcohol consumption and other health problems, if patients remained on statins for four and six years, their risk reduced by 18%.

And if they took them for six or more years, the risk reduced by 22%.