Statin use and the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma among patients with chronic hepatitis B: an emulated target trial using longitudinal nationwide population cohort data

Dong Hyun Sinn ^# 1 2, Danbee Kang ^# 2 3, Yewan Park ⁴, Hyunsoo Kim ³, Yun Soo Hong ⁵, Juhee Cho ^6 7 8, Geum-Youn Gwak ⁹

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• PMID: 37880589
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• PMCID: PMC10601275
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• DOI: 10.1186/s12876-023-02996-w

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Abstract

Background: No randomized controlled trials have been completed to see whether statin can decrease hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) risk in chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients. We used large-scale, population-based, observational data to emulate a target trial with two groups, statin user and statin non-user.

Methods: Among 1,379,708 nonunique individuals from the Korean National Health Insurance Service data, 2,915 CHB patients with serum cholesterol level of 200 mg/dL or higher who started statin therapy and 8,525 propensity-score matched CHB patients with serum cholesterol level of 200 mg/dL or higher who did not start statin therapy were analyzed for the development of HCC. In addition, liver cancer or liver-related mortality and all-cause mortality were assessed.

Results: During follow-up, 207 participants developed HCC. Incidence rate of HCC was 0.2 per 1,000 person-years in the statin user group and 0.3 per 1,000 person-years in the statin non-user group. Fully adjusted hazard ratio (HR) for incident HCC comparing statin user group to statin nonuser group was 0.56 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.39 to 0.80). The association between statin use and decreased HCC risk was consistent in all subgroups analyzed. Fully adjusted HR comparing statin user to statin nonuser was 0.59 (95% CI: 0.35 to 0.99) for liver cancer or liver-related mortality and 0.93 (95% CI: 0.78 to 1.11) for all-cause mortality.

Conclusions: Statin might have a benefit for preventing HCC in CHB patients with elevated cholesterol levels. Statin should be actively considered for CHB patients with dyslipidemia.

Keywords: Chronic Hepatitis B; Hepatocellular carcinoma; Statin.

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