The Impact of Oral Hypoglycemics and Statins on Outcomes in Myelodysplastic Syndromes

Background: Observational studies suggest an anti-neoplastic effect associated with statins, metformin, dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors (DPP4i), while sulfonylureas may have a neutral or detrimental effect. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of these medications in patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). Methods: A prospective Canadian national registry containing disease and patient-related characteristics enrolled patients with MDS between January 1, 2006 and December 31, 2019. The Ontario subset of the registry was linked to population-based health system administrative databases. The primary outcome was the impact of statin/oral hypoglycemic medication exposure on overall survival (OS). Cumulative medication exposure (in months) was evaluated from 1-year prior to registry enrollment to date of death or end of follow-up (March 31, 2020) as a time-varying covariate. Cox regression analysis controlling for comorbid disease burden (Aggregated Diagnosis Groups; ADG) and sociodemographic factors (age, sex, rurality, income quintile) examined the relationship between medication exposure and OS. Our secondary outcome was leukemia-free survival (LFS), in which cause-specific hazard model was used to evaluate the association between medication exposure and LFS, taking death as the competing event. Results: In total, 533 patients aged >66 years were included (395 lower-risk IPSS, 130 higher-risk IPSS). The median age was 76.0 years (IQR 72.0-81.0), 65.1% were male and 9% had secondary MDS. The mean follow-up was 2.6 years (SD+ 2.4). Starting one year prior to registry enrollment and until the end of follow-up, 49.3% used a statin, 18.9% used metformin, 9.0% used a sulfonylurea and 6.4% used a DPP4i. On univariate analysis, we identified an improved OS in the lower-risk IPSS group using DPP4i (HR 0.98, 95% CI 0.95-1.00, p=0.05), while there was no significant difference in the higher-risk IPSS group for users of DPP4i (HR 1.03, 95% CI 0.99-1.07, p=0.21). In both lower and higher-risk IPSS groups, there was no difference in mortality for statins (HR 1.00, CI 1.00-1.01, p=0.93), metformin (HR 1.00, CI 0.99-1.01, p=0.81) and sulfonylureas (HR 1.00, CI 0.99-1.02, p=0.43). Increased age (p