Statin Use Linked to Reduced Risk for CRC Incidence, Mortality in Patients With IBD

THURSDAY, Sept. 7, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- For patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), statin use is associated with a reduced risk for colorectal cancer (CRC) incidence and mortality, according to a study published online Aug. 24 in eClinicalMedicine.

Jiangwei Sun, Ph.D., from the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, and colleagues examined the association between statin use and CRC in patients with IBD in a nationwide cohort study in Sweden. A total of 5,273 statin users and 5,273 non-statin users from July 2006 to December 2018 were identified.

The researchers found that 70 statin users and 90 non-statin users were diagnosed with incident CRC during a median follow-up of 5.6 years (incidence rate, 21.2 versus 29.2 per 10,000 person-years; adjusted hazard ratio, 0.76). In a nested case-control design, the benefit for incident CRC was duration-dependent; the adjusted odds ratios were 0.59 (95 percent confidence interval, 0.25 to 1.43), 0.46 (0.21 to 0.98), and 0.38 (0.16 to 0.86) for one to two years of statin use, two to five years of statin use, and five years or more of statin use compared with short-term statin use (30 days to less than one year). Statin users also showed a reduced risk for CRC-related mortality and all-cause mortality compared with non-statin users (adjusted hazard ratios, 0.56 and 0.63).

"Our findings indicated that in IBD patients, statin use was associated with a lower risk of incident CRC, CRC-related mortality, and all-cause mortality. The benefits were duration-dependent and observed primarily in individuals with UC (ulcerative colitis)," the authors write.

Several authors disclosed ties to the pharmaceutical industry.

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