Statins intake and risk of liver cancer: A dose–response meta analysis of prospective cohort studies

Previous studies have indicated that statins intake was associated with liver cancer risk, but presented controversial results. Studies in PubMed and EMBASE were searched update to February 2017 to identify and quantify the potential dose–response association between statins intake and liver cancer. Six eligible studies involving a total of 11,8961 participants with 9530 incident cases were included in this meta-analysis. Statistically significant association was observed between increasing statins intake and liver cancer risk reduction (OR = 0.46, 95%CI: 0.24–0.68, P <.001). Furthermore, the summary relative risk of liver cancer for an increase of 50 cumulative defined daily dose per year was 0.86 (95%CI: 0.81–0.90, P <.001). Evidence of a nonlinear dose–response relationship between statins intake and liver cancer risk was found (P for nonlinearity <.01). Subgroups analysis indicated that statins intake was associated with a significantly risk of liver cancer risk reduction in Asia (OR = 0.44, 95%CI: 0.11–0.77, P <.001) and Caucasian (OR = 0.49, 95%CI: 0.36–0.61, P <.001). Subgroup meta-analyses in study design, study quality, number of participants, and number of cases showed consistency with the primary findings. Additional statins intake is associated with liver cancer risk reduction.