Examining Bias in Studies of Statin Treatment and Survival in Patients With Cancer.

ABSTRACT:

Importance

Patients with cancer who use statins appear to have a substantially better survival than nonusers in observational studies. However, this inverse association between statin use and mortality may be due to selection bias and immortal-time bias.

Objective

To emulate a randomized trial of statin therapy initiation that is free of selection bias and immortal-time bias.

Design, setting, and participants

We used observational data on 17 372 patients with cancer from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER)-Medicare database (2007-2009) with complete follow-up until 2011. The SEER-Medicare database links 17 US cancer registries and claims files from Medicare and Medicaid in 12 US states. We included individuals with a new diagnosis of colorectal, bre

SUBMITTER: Emilsson L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5790310 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature