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August 6, 2014
Statins Reduce Barrett's Esophagus Risk, Especially in Obese
Houston—The use of statins significantly lessens the risk of developing Barrett’s esophagus, especially in obese patients, according to a new veterans study. The research was published recently in the journal Gastroenterology. “Patients who received statins had a 43% percent reduction in the odds of having Barrett’s esophagus compared to non-users,” said study author Hashem B. El-Serag, MD, MPH, from the Houston VA Medical Center and Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. “This is the first study to find a significantly lower risk of Barrett’s esophagus with statin use, independent of other known risk factors. Further studies are needed to examine this association.” For the single-center, large case-control study, researchers focused on 303 Barrett’s esophagus patients and 909 controls treated at the Michael E. DeBakey Veteran Affairs Medical Center in Houston. Electronic pharmacy records were examined over a decade to determine medication usage and evaluate the association between the use of statins and the risk of Barrett’s esophagus. Results indicate that statins may have a protective effect against the development of Barrett’s esophagus independent of risk factors such as age, race, gender, H. pylori infection, and smoking status. No significant association was found between Barrett’s esophagus and nonstatin lipid-lowering medications, according to the study. Study authors note that statins’ protective effect was especially great among obese patients: Those with a body mass index greater than or equal to 30 had a 74% reduction in Barrett’s esophagus. Use of a cholesterol-lowering drug—primarily simvastatin in this study—reduced the odds of developing Barrett’s esophagus 59% in patients complaining of gastroesophageal reflux disease, according to the report. In addition, longer use of statins increased the effect, with patients on the therapy for 3 or more years having higher risk reduction. Study authors caution that the results may not be widely generalizable because the study group primarily consisted of older men, 94.3% of them using simvastatin. The article’s background notes that Barrett’s esophagus affects 1% to 2% of the general population. As the only known precancerous lesion for esophageal cancer, the condition increases the risk of developing that type of cancer by 10- to 55-fold compared with the general population. “In a case-control study of veterans, statin use was associated with a reduced risk of Barrett’s esophagus,” the authors conclude. “The greatest level of risk reduction was observed for obese patients and for long-segment Barrett’s esophagus.” |
U.S. Pharmacist Social Connect
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