Statin Use and Prostate Cancer Incidence in Manitoba, Canada: A Population-Based Nested Case-Control Study.

BACKGROUND

A link between statin use and prostate cancer risk has been proposed. Epidemiologic evidence is, however, inconclusive, and data for specific statin types as well as for period, duration, and dose of use are lacking.

METHODS

We conducted a population-based nested case- control study using administrative data in Manitoba, Canada. Prostate cancer cases were matched to cancer-free controls, and their statin use (including period, duration, and dose of use) was assessed (with adjustment for prostate cancer screening) for statins as a class and for each specific statin.

RESULTS

We matched 9,384 prostate cancer cases to 46,749 cancer-free controls. Ever use of any statin was not associated with prostate cancer risk, odds ratio (OR) 0.96 (95% confidence interval, 0.90-1.03). Except for pravastatin, 0.82 (0.71-0.96), individual statins were not associated with prostate cancer risk. There was no dose or duration response for pravastatin (or any other statin).

CONCLUSIONS

We found limited evidence of an association between statin use and prostate cancer risk. The association between pravastatin and prostate cancer risk may be due to chance.

IMPACT

We show that statin use is not associated with prostate cancer risk after adjustment for screening for a large population with data going back to the mid-1990s.