Statins and Metformin Use Is Associated with Lower PSA Levels in Prostate Cancer Patients Presenting for Radiation Therapy.

[pjoshea13]

New Mayo Clinic study below. [1]

"Three hundred and eighty one patients treated between the years of 2000-2005 and 2009-2012 were included in this retrospective study."

"Compared with men who were not on these medications, the PSA level at presentation was 20% lower for statin users ... and 33% lower for metformin users ..."

-Patrick

[1] ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/282...

J Cancer Ther. 2017 Feb;8(2):73-85. doi: 10.4236/jct.2017.82007. Epub 2017 Feb 6.

Statins and Metformin Use Is Associated with Lower PSA Levels in Prostate Cancer Patients Presenting for Radiation Therapy.

Liu X1, Li J1, Schild SE2, Schild MH2, Wong W2, Vora S2, Herman MG3, Fatyga M2.

Author information

1School of Computing, Informatics, Decision Systems Engineering, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA.

2Department of Radiation Oncology, Mayo Clinic Arizona, Phoenix, AZ, USA.

3Department of Radiation Oncology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, AZ, USA.

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

A possible association between the level of prostate specific antigen (PSA) and the use of some commonly prescribed medications has been reported in recent studies. Most of these studies were carried out in general populations of men who were screened for prostate cancer using the PSA test. We reported on the association between the initial PSA level and the use of statins, metformin and alpha-blockers in patients who were diagnosed with prostate cancer and presented for radiation therapy.

METHODS:

Three hundred and eighty one patients treated between the years of 2000-2005 and 2009-2012 were included in this retrospective study. The information about statin, metformin and alpha-blockers use was recorded immediately prior to treatment. Differences in PSA levels prior to treatment by medication status were estimated using univa-riate and multivariate linear regression on log PSA values.

RESULTS:

Compared with men who were not on these medications, the PSA level at presentation was 20% lower for statin users (p = 0.002) and 33% lower for metformin users (p = 0.004). We did not observe statistically significant associations between the use of statins or metformin and cancer stage, National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) risk score, or therapy outcome. A statistically significant association between the NCCN risk score and the use of alpha-blockers was observed (p = 0.002).

CONCLUSIONS:

We found that statins and metformin were associated with lower PSA levels in prostate cancer patients to an extent that could influence management decisions. We found no statistically significant associations between the use of these medications and treatment outcomes.

KEYWORDS:

Metformin; PSA; Prostate Cancer; Statins

PMID: 28239505 DOI: 10.4236/jct.2017.82007

[bdriggers]

Influence management decisions how I wonder?

We found no statistically significant associations between the use of these medications and treatment outcomes.

So I wonder how long they followed the patients. In the group from 2000-2005, that would be interesting to see the outcomes over 12-17 years, if there was still no statistical significant outcome differences.