Statins and the risk of gynecological cancer: a Norwegian population-based cohort study.

Abstract

Background: Endometrial, ovarian, and cervical cancers are the most common gynecological cancers, with 1.4 million diagnoses worldwide in 2022. Statins are widely used for cardiovascular conditions and have been studied for their association with gynecological cancer risk, but results to date have been inconclusive.

Methods: We conducted a population-based cohort study including data from the Norwegian Prescription Database and the Cancer Registry of Norway, and followed women aged ≥50 years from 2004 to 2018. We examined the association between statin use overall and by type (lipophilic, hydrophilic), and the risk of endometrial, ovarian, and cervical cancers overall and by age groups and histologic subgroup using Cox proportional hazard models.

Results: The cohort study included 1 083 629 women. During a median follow-up of 11.6 years, 334 582 (31%) used statins at least once. There were 7709 cases of endometrial, 4415 cases of ovarian, and 1603 cases of cervical cancers. Statin use was associated with reduced risk of endometrial cancer [current use hazard ratio (HR) = 0.90, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.85-0.96; past use HR = 0.79, 95% CI: 0.71-0.88]; associations were observed only for the lipophilic statins, and with similar associations by age groups and for type I and II endometrial cancer. No consistent associations were found for ovarian or cervical cancers. We found no trends for cumulative defined daily doses of current use or time since cessation for any cancer type.

Conclusion: Statin use was associated with a reduced risk of endometrial cancer but not with the risk of ovarian cancer or cervical cancer.