Inverse association between statin use and head and neck cancer: A population-based case-control study in Han population

Background: This case-control study aimed to find the relationship between prior statin use and head and neck cancer occurrence using a large population-based database. Methods: This study used claims data from the Taiwan Longitudinal Health Insurance Database. We included 5515 patients with head and neck cancer as cases and 5515 propensity score-matched patients without head and neck cancer as controls. Conditional logistic regressions were performed to investigate the relationship between head and neck cancer and prior statin exposure. Results: Of the 11 030 total sampled patients, 16.95% had previously received prescriptions for statins. In addition, statin exposure was found in 15.99% of cases and 17.91% of controls. The logistic regression also revealed that the adjusted odds ratio of prior statin exposure for cases was 0.86 (95% confidence interval: 0.77-0.95) compared to propensity score-matched controls. Conclusion: This study found an inverse association between statin usage and head and neck cancer occurrence.