BACKGROUND: Limited data suggest that statin use reduces the risk for ovarian cancer.

METHODS: Using Danish nationwide registries, we identified 4103 cases of epithelial ovarian cancer during 2000-2011 and age-matched them to 58,706 risk-set sampled controls. Conditional logistic regression was used to estimate adjusted odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for epithelial ovarian cancer overall, and for histological types, associated with statin use.

RESULTS: We observed a neutral association between ever use of statins and epithelial ovarian cancer risk (OR=0.98, 95% CI=0.87-1.10), and no apparent risk variation according to duration, intensity or type of statin use. Decreased ORs associated with statin use were seen for mucinous ovarian cancer (ever statin use: OR=0.63, 95% CI=0.39-1.00).

CONCLUSIONS: Statin use was not associated with overall risk for epithelial ovarian cancer. The inverse association between statin use and mucinous tumours merits further investigation.