Exposure to prescription medications and risk of colorectal cancer
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Exposure to prescription medications and risk of colorectal cancer: A NI population based case-control study.
IRAS ID
172143
Contact name
Chris Cardwell
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Queen's University Belfast
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 0 months, 2 days
Research summary
Background: In the UK each year around 35,000 individuals are diagnosed with colorectal cancer and 16,000 individuals die from it. Preclinical and observational studies have shown potential associations between colorectal cancer risk and a number of medications including medications for stomach acid (e.g. proton pump inhibitors, PPIs), high cholesterol (statins) and obesity (orlistat). There is a clear need to investigate these associations particularly because of the widespread and often prolonged usage of some of these medications.
Aims: The primary aim of this study is to determine whether PPIs/orlistat/statin usage is associated with increased colorectal cancer risk. Secondary analyses will investigate other medications.Methods: A case-control study will be conducted. Individuals with colorectal cancer will be identified from Northern Ireland Cancer Registry (NICR) records. Ten control individuals (who are cancer free) will be randomly selected for each colorectal cancer patient (matched on gender, year and month of birth) from the list of patients registered with a GP in Northern Ireland (held by Health and Social Care Business Services Organisation, BSO). Use of medications (including PPIs, orlistat and statins) will be determined in colorectal cancer patients and controls from medication dispensing records held by BSO. Linkages between the NICR records and BSO dispensing records will be conducted on a one way encrypted Health and Social Care number which will be removed from the dataset prior to the conduct of analysis, consequently the researchers will not have access to patient identifiers. The proportion using medications of interest will be compared between the colorectal cancer cases and controls and logistic regression will be used to estimate the increased risk of colorectal cancer in medications users.
Potential: Should the study determine that any of these medications increase colorectal cancer risk, current practice regarding the use of these medications may need to be reconsidered.
REC name
South Central - Hampshire A Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/SC/0110
Date of REC Opinion
24 Feb 2015
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion