Statin Use and Serum Lipid Levels Are Associated with Survival Outcomes after Surgery for Renal Cell Carcinoma

Objective To evaluate the association of statin use and preoperative serum lipid parameters with oncologic outcomes following surgery for renal cell carcinoma. Methods A total of 850 patients who underwent surgery for localized renal cell carcinoma at our institution from 2000 to 2012 were included. Use of statins, preoperative serum lipid profile, and comprehensive clinicopathologic features were retrospectively recorded. Kaplan-Meier analysis and multivariate Cox proportional hazards model were employed to compare survival outcomes. Results There were 342 statin users and 508 non-users. Median follow-up was 25.0 months. Statin users were older, had greater body mass index, and had worse performance status than non-users. Tumor pathologic characteristics were balanced between groups. Five-year recurrence free survival (RFS) was 77.9% for non-users compared with 87.6% for statin users (P =.004). After adjustment for clinicopathologic variables, statin use was independently associated with improved RFS (hazard ratio [HR] 0.54, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.33-0.86, P =.011) and overall survival (HR 0.45, 95%CI 0.28-0.71, P =.001). In patients with available serum lipid parameters (n = 193), 5-year RFS was 83.8% for patients with triglycerides <250 mg/dL compared with 33.3% for those with triglycerides >250 mg/dL (P <.0001). Elevated serum triglycerides (>250 mg/dL) was independently associated with worse RFS (HR 2.69, 95%CI 1.22-5.93, P =.015) on multivariate analysis. Conclusion Statin use was independently associated with improved survival, whereas elevated serum triglyceride levels correlated with worse oncologic outcomes in this cohort. These findings warrant validation in prospective studies.