Statin drugs effect on life expectancy of patients with advanced prostate cancer that received primary castration treatment

Background: Statins are cholesterol-lowering drugs proven to prevent cardiovascular disease. They are among the most prescribed drugs worldwide. Conflicting evidence suggest that statins may have anticancer activities against prostate cancer. Prostate cancer is the fifth leading cause of cancer death in men worldwide. The aim of this retrospective cohort study is to examine whether statin use affects the life expectancy of men with advanced prostate cancer who had castration as a primary treatment. Material and methods: The study population consists of 269 men who received castration as a primary treatment to prostate cancer in the years 2007 and 2008. These patients were collected from an existing quality database that belongs to the Urology department at Sahlgrenska University hospital in Gothenburg, Sweden. The database contains information from the Swedish cancer registry and patients’ medical journals. We collected additional information from medical journals on patients’ drug use and PSA nadir levels. Patients that had been taking statin drugs prior to castration were classified as statin users. The last day of follow-up was December 31st 2012. Results: Of the 269 men 56 (20,8%) were taking statin drugs prior to castration. Statin users (56) were compared to the non-users (213). Statin use was not found to be a prognostic factor for survival when all-cause mortality was used. However statin users had statistically lower PSA at castration and also lower PSA nadir value after castration compared to non-users. Discussion: In this study no significant difference was found in life expectancy between the two groups. We used all-cause mortality and that most likely affected our results. Patients taking statin drugs have more comorbidities than the non statin-users. Statin-users had lower PSA values but we cannot know whether this is a direct effect of statins on the tumors or if there are confounding factors causing this. To reach a conclusion that has to be studied further. Key words: Statins; prostate cancer; castratio