The association between statin administration and renal cell carcinoma; a systematic review and meta-analysis

Introduction: Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is the most prevalent renal cancer in adults, with a rising global incidence. There has long been an ambiguity about the effect of statin administration on the incidence of RCC. The present meta-analysis aims to evaluate the relationship between statin usage and RCC. Materials and Methods: Cochrane, Web of Science, Scopus, and PubMed databases, as well as the Google Scholar search engine, were queried for relevant articles. The data were statistically analyzed by STATA 14 software. The significance level of the tests was considered P<0.05. Results: In 15 reviewed articles, 46 735 subjects used statin, and 673 752 did not. The odds ratio (OR) between statin usage and the risk incidence of RCC was 0.86 (OR: 0.86; 95% CI: 0.63, 1.17) overall and estimated as 0.94 (OR: 0.94; 95% CI: 0.69, 1.28) in males and 0.92 (OR: 0.92; 95% CI: 0.66, 1.28) in females. The odds ratio of statin administration and the incidence risk of RCC was 0.74 (OR: 0.74; 95% CI: 0.37, 1.49) in case-control and 0.96 (OR: 0.96; 95% CI: 0.79, 1.17) in cohort studies. In addition, the impact of statin usage on overall survival (OS) in RCC was 0.65 (HR: 0.65; 95% CI: 0.53, 0.80), and this relationship was statistically significant. However, the effect of statin usage was 0.68 (HR: 0.68; 95% CI: 0.45, 1.02) on progression-free survival (PFS) and 1.24 (OR: 1.24; 95% CI: 0.66, 2.32) on disease progression (DP), and these relationships were statistically non-significant. Conclusion: The OS of RCC patients was 35% higher in statin users than in non-users. However, no relationship between statin usage and the incidence risk of RCC was found. Meta-analysis Registration: This study has been compiled based on the PRISMA checklist, and its protocol was registered on the PROSPERO website (CRD42023393647).