Association of clonal hematopoiesis mutations with clinical outcomes: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Clonal hematopoiesis (CH) mutations are common among individuals without known hematologic disease. CH mutations have been associated with numerous adverse clinical outcomes across many different studies. We systematically reviewed the available literature for clinical outcomes associated with CH mutations in patients without hematologic disease. We searched PubMed, EMBASE, and Scopus for eligible studies. Three investigators independently extracted the data, and each study was verified by a second author. Risk of bias was assessed using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. We identified 32 studies with 56 cohorts that examine the association between CH mutations and clinical outcomes. We conducted meta-analyses comparing outcomes among individuals with and without detectable CH mutations. We conducted meta-analyses for cardiovascular diseases (nine studies; HR = 1.61, 95% CI = 1.26-2.07, p = .0002), hematologic malignancies (seven studies; HR = 5.59, 95% CI = 3.31-9.45, p < .0001), therapy-related myeloid neoplasms (four studies; HR = 7.55, 95% CI = 4.3-13.57, p < .001), and death (nine studies; HR = 1.34, 95% CI = 1.2-1.5, p < .0001). The cardiovascular disease analysis was further stratified by variant allele fraction (VAF) and gene, which showed a statistically significant association only with a VAF of ≥ 10% (HR = 1.42, 95% CI = 1.24-1.62, p < .0001), as well as statistically significant associations for each gene examined with the largest magnitude of effect found for CH mutations in JAK2 (HR = 3.5, 95% CI = 1.84-6.68, p < .0001). Analysis of the association of CH mutations with hematologic malignancy demonstrated a numeric stepwise increase in risk with increasing VAF thresholds. This analysis strongly supports the association of CH mutations with a clinically meaningful increased risk of adverse clinical outcomes among individuals without hematologic disease, particularly with increasing VAF thresholds.

Association of statin use with clinical outcomes in patients with triple-negative breast cancer.

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have examined the association of statin therapy and breast cancer outcomes with mixed results. The objective of this study was to investigate the clinical effects of incident statin use among individuals with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). METHODS: Data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results-Medicare and Texas Cancer Registry-Medicare databases were used, and women aged ≥66 years who had stage I, II, and III breast cancer were identified. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to examine the association of new statin use in the 12 months after a breast cancer diagnosis with overall survival (OS) and breast cancer-specific survival (BCSS). RESULTS: When examining incident statin use, defined as the initiation of statin therapy in the 12 months after breast cancer diagnosis, a significant association was observed between statin use and improved BCSS (standardized hazard ratio, 0.42; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.20-0.88; P = .022) and OS (hazard ratio, 0.70; 95% CI, 0.50-0.99; P = .046) among patients with TNBC (n = 1534). No association was observed with BCSS (standardized hazard ratio, 0.99; 95% CI, 0.71-1.39; P = .97) or OS (hazard ratio, 1.04; 95% CI, 0.92-1.17; P = .55) among those without TNBC (n = 15,979). The results were consistent when examining statin exposure as a time-varying variable. CONCLUSIONS: Among women with I, II, and III TNBC, initiation of statin therapy in the 12 months after breast cancer diagnosis was associated with an OS and BCSS benefit. Statins may have a role in select patients with breast cancer, and further investigation is warranted.