• Jenny J Lin, Nicole Ezer, Keith Sigel, Grace Mhango, and Juan P Wisnivesky.
• Division of General Internal Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, One Gustave L. Levy Place, Box 1087, New York, NY 10029, USA. Electronic address: jenny.lin@mssm.edu.
• Lung Cancer. 2016 Sep 1; 99: 137-42.

ObjectivesPrior studies have shown an anticancer effect of statins in patients with certain malignancies. However, it is unclear whether statins have a mortality benefit in lung cancer. We compared survival of patients with stage IV non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) receiving vs. not receiving statins prior to diagnosis.MethodsUsing data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results registry linked to Medicare claims, we identified 5118 patients  >65 years of age diagnosed with stage IV NSCLC between 2007 and 2009. We used propensity score methods to assess the association of statin use with overall and lung cancer-specific survival while controlling for measured confounders.ResultsOverall, 27% of patients were on statins at time of lung cancer diagnosis. Median survival in the statin group was 7 months, compared to 4 months in patients not treated with statins (p<0.001). Propensity score analyses found that statin use was associated with improvement in overall (hazard ratio [HR]: 0.76, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.73-0.79) and lung cancer-specific survival (HR: 0.77, 95% CI: 0.73-0.81), after controlling for baseline patient characteristics, cancer characteristics, staging work-up and chemotherapy use.ConclusionsStatin use is associated with improved survival among patients with stage IV NSCLC suggesting a potential anticancer effect. Further research should evaluate plausible biological mechanisms as well as test the effect of statins in prospective clinical trials.Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

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