Poststroke statin treatment confers survival benefits on cancer patients

Statin treatment following ischaemic stroke appears to extend its benefits to improved survival in patients who also have had cancer, a study has found.

The study used data from linked registry and administrative data from 45 hospitals and included 9,948 eligible 90-day survivors of ischaemic stroke (median age 72 years, 42 percent female). All of them were followed from 91 days postdischarge until death or the end of the study. Data on statin use within 90 days after discharge were obtained from pharmaceutical records.

Researchers applied propensity score–adjusted Cox proportional hazards regression model to examine the association between being dispensed statins and survival. They assessed the influence of history of cancer on this association based on the concepts of statistical interaction and biological interaction according to three indices (ie, relative excess risk due to interaction >0, attributable proportion due to interaction >0, or synergy index >1).

A total of 1,463 deaths were recorded during the study period. Adjusted analyses revealed no significant statistical interaction between being dispensed statins and history of cancer on mortality (p=0.156).

However, being dispensed statins and having a history of cancer seemed to have a significant positive biological interaction effect on mortality (relative excess risk due to interaction, 2.80, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 1.56–5.05; attributable proportion due to interaction, 0.45, 95 percent CI, 0.23–0.66; and synergy index, 2.14, 95 percent CI, 1.32–3.49).