Language

English

Publication Date

7-1-2025

Journal

Breast Cancer Research and Treatment

DOI

10.1007/s10549-025-07699-2

PMID

40293644

PMCID

PMC12086115

PubMedCentral® Posted Date

4-28-2025

PubMedCentral® Full Text Version

Post-print

Abstract

Purpose: There is evidence that statins might improve the outcome of patients with breast cancer. The role of statins in patients with early HER2-positive breast cancer is unknown. Therefore, we explored the association between statin use and survival outcomes in early HER2-positive breast cancer patients in the phase III APHINITY trial (adjuvant pertuzumab/trastuzumab).

Methods: All patients (intent-to-treat population, n = 4804) were included (6.2 years median follow-up database). The primary objective was to investigate the association of statin use on invasive disease-free survival (IDFS), distant relapse-free interval (DRFI), and overall survival (OS). Patients who received statins at baseline, or started statins within 1 year from randomization were considered statin users. Survival curves were estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method. We used a Cox proportional hazards model for multivariate analysis.

Results: Overall, 423 (8.8%) patients were classified as statin users. They were older, more often postmenopausal, had a higher body mass index, more often diabetes, hypertension, coronary heart disease and hyperlipidemia, had smaller sized tumors, were treated more often with breast conserving surgery, and less often with anthracycline-containing regimens. Overall, 508 IDFS events (12.8% among statin users and 10.4% among non-statin users) and 272 deaths (8.5% and 5.4%, respectively) occurred. In multivariate analysis, statin use was not associated with IDFS (HR, 1.11; 95% CI, 0.80-1.52), DRFI (HR, 1.21; 95% CI, 0.81-1.81) nor OS (HR, 1.16; 95% CI, 0.78-1.73).

Conclusion: In APHINITY, statin use was not associated with improved survival outcomes. These results must be interpreted with caution due to the exploratory nature of the analysis and the associated limitations.

Keywords

Humans, Female, Breast Neoplasms, Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Inhibitors, Middle Aged, Receptor, ErbB-2, Aged, Neoplasm Staging, Adult, Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols, Treatment Outcome, Trastuzumab, Kaplan-Meier Estimate, Prognosis, Breast cancer, HER2-positive, Statins, Pertuzumab, Trastuzumab

Published Open-Access

yes

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