Statin Use May Not Impact Prognosis of Patients With Follicular Lymphoma

Statin use may not impact the prognosis of patients with follicular lymphoma who are treated with immunochemotherapy, according to a study published in the American Journal of Hematology.¹

Researchers led by Emmanuel Bachy, MD, of Claude Bernard University Lyon in France looked at 1135 participants who were enrolled in the PRIMA study in order to assess the outcome of patients with follicular lymphoma treated with immunochemotherapy according to the use of statins.

“An adverse prognostic impact of statin use in lymphoma was first suspected from in vitro data showing an impairment of anti-CD20 antibody binding,” the authors noted. “However, further clinical studies suggested an improved outcome associated with their use in hematological malignancies.”

Among the observed patients, 119 were on statins at the time of diagnosis. According to the use of statins, researchers evaluated for adverse events frequencies, event-free survival (EFS), time to next lymphoma treatment (TTNLT), time to next chemotherapy (TTNCT), and overall survival (OS).

The rate of overall and specific cardiovascular adverse events were comparable among all patients during induction and maintenance, while outcomes in terms of response rates or EFS, TTNLT, TTNCT and OS were similar regardless of statin use upon univariate and multivariate analyses.

Reference

1. Bachy E, Estell JA, Van de Neste E, et al. Statin use is safe and does not impact prognosis in patient with de novo follicular lymphoma treated with immunochemotherapy: an exploratory analysis of the PRIMA cohort study [published online ahead of print January 22, 2016]. Am J Hematol. doi: 10.1002/ajh.24305.