Post-diagnosis statin use and survival among lung cancer patients in the Military Health System

Background: There have been no studies examining the relationship between statin use and lung cancer survival in the U.S. Military Health System (MHS), a universal healthcare system. This study assessed whether statin use after lung cancer diagnosis is associated with overall survival among MHS beneficiaries with lung cancer. Methods: This study was based on the Military Cancer Epidemiology (MilCanEpi) database, a database linking the DoD's Central Cancer Registry (CCR) and the MHS Data Repository (MDR). The study subjects were MHS beneficiaries diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Information on statin use was extracted from the database. Time-dependent Cox proportional hazard regression model was used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95 % confidence intervals (95 % CIs) comparing post-diagnosis use of statin relative to non-users. Results: Among the 5096 patients, 864 patients used a statin after NSCLC diagnosis. Compared to individuals who never used statin, increased cumulative use of statin (per one-year of use) among the users conferred a significantly improved survival with an adjusted HR of 0.82 (95 % CI=0.75–0.90). In stratified analysis, the survival benefit or its tendency associated with increased cumulative use was observed regardless of age, race, sex, tumor stage, comorbidity index or baseline use. Conclusions: Post-diagnosis statin use was associated with improved survival among NSCLC patients in a universal healthcare system.