Abstract 877: Aspirin and other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, statins, and risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma
Authors: Cerhan James R. , O'Bryne Megan M. , Nowakowski Grzegorz S. , Call Timothy G. , Thompson Carrie A. , Shanafelt Tait D. , Macon William R. , Kay Neil E. , Habermann Thomas M. , Slager Susan L. , Liebow Mark 
Published: August 2015

Background. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and statin drugs have been suggested as protective agents against the development of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), but data are limited, particularly for NHL subtypes. Further, some in vitro, animal and epidemiologic data suggest there may be a synergistic effect of these two agents in cancer prevention, but there has been no test of this hypothesis in NHL.

Methods. We evaluated the use of NSAIDs and statins in a clinic-based study of 1683 newly diagnosed cases and 2168 frequency matched controls enrolled from 2002-2012. Regular use (at least once/week for at least one year) of low dose (baby) aspirin, standard or extra strength aspirin, ibuprofen, other NSAIDs (e.g., naproxen, etc), COX-2 inhibitors, as well as statins or other cholesterol lowering drugs, was ascertained using a self-administered questionnaire. Frequency, amount and duration of use were also collected. Unconditional logistic regression was used to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CI), adjusted for age, sex, residence, education, body mass index, smoking history, alcohol use, and history of rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis. Pathologic classification of NHL subtypes was centrally reviewed, and subtype-specific NHL risks were estimated using polychotomous logistic regression for chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma (CLL/SLL, N = 495), diffuse large B-cell (DLBCL, N = 326), follicular (FL, N = 410) and marginal zone (MZL, N = 134) lymphomas.

Results. The mean age of cases was 61.8 years and 59% were men, while the mean age of controls was 61.6 years and 53% were men. We observed an inverse association of low dose aspirin use with risk of NHL (OR = 0.82; 95% CI 0.70-0.96), with stronger associations for more pills per day, longer duration of use and greater number of pill-years. In contrast, we observed no evidence of an association with NHL risk with use of regular or extra-strength aspirin, ibuprofen, other NSAIDs, or COX-2 inhibitors, nor use of statins or other cholesterol-lowering drugs. When we modeled the joint use of low dose aspirin and statins, the strongest inverse association was observed for low dose aspirin use only, followed by use of both aspirin and statins; there was no association with statin use only and no evidence for any interaction of low dose aspirin and statins on NHL risk. For low dose aspirin, the strongest inverse trends were observed for DLBCL, followed by FL and MZL, while there were no consistent associations for CLL/SLL.

Conclusions. We found a strong inverse association of low dose aspirin use with risk of NHL and the subtypes of DLBCL, FL, and MZL, but no association for regular/extra strength aspirin, other NSAIDs or statin use. While confirmation is needed, our findings for low dose aspirin but not use of other NSAIDs suggest that anti-platelet or other effects of low dose aspirin may be of etiologic significance in lymphomagenesis.

Citation Format: James R. Cerhan, Megan M. O'Bryne, Grzegorz S. Nowakowski, Timothy G. Call, Carrie A. Thompson, Tait D. Shanafelt, William R. Macon, Neil E. Kay, Thomas M. Habermann, Susan L. Slager, Mark Liebow. Aspirin and other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, statins, and risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 877. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-877