Trend of increased kidney cancer risk with statins

This study was published in Expert Opinion on Drug Safety 2012 Apr 16

Study title and authors:
Statin use and the risk of kidney cancer: a population-based case-control study.

Chiu HF, Kuo CC, Kuo HW, Lee IM, Lee CT, Yang CY.
Kaohsiung Medical University, Institute of Pharmacology, College of Medicine , Kaohsiung , Taiwan.

This study can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22502740

The objective of the study was to investigate whether the use of statins was associated with kidney cancer risk. The study included 177 kidney cancer cases and 708 controls aged 50 or over.

The study found that those who were prescribed statins had an 8% increased risk of kidney cancer compared to those that did not take statins.

The author of the paper, Professor Hui-Fen Chiu, advises; "there is a trend of increased kidney cancer risk" and "it is prudent to continue monitoring cancer incidence among long-standing statin users".