Dickerman, BA;
García-Albéniz, X;
Logan, RW;
Denaxas, S;
Hernán, MA;
(2020)
Emulating a target trial in case-control designs: an application to statins and colorectal cancer.
International Journal of Epidemiology
, 49
(5)
pp. 1637-1646.
10.1093/ije/dyaa144.
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Abstract
BACKGROUND: Previous case-control studies have reported a strong association between statin use and lower cancer risk. It is unclear whether this association reflects a benefit of statins or is the result of design decisions that cannot be mapped to a (hypothetical) target trial (that would answer the question of interest). METHODS: We outlined the protocol of a target trial to estimate the effect of statins on colorectal cancer incidence among adults with low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol below 5 mmol/L. We then emulated the target trial using linked electronic health records of 752 469 eligible UK adults (CALIBER 1999-2016) under both a cohort design and a case-control sampling of the cohort. We used pooled logistic regression to estimate intention-to-treat and per-protocol effects of statins on colorectal cancer, with adjustment for baseline and time-varying risk factors via inverse-probability weighting. Finally, we compared our case-control effect estimates with those obtained using previous case-control procedures. RESULTS: Over the 6-year follow-up, 3596 individuals developed colorectal cancer. Estimated intention-to-treat and per-protocol hazard ratios were 1.00 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.87, 1.16) and 0.90 (95% CI: 0.71, 1.12), respectively. As expected, adequate case-control sampling yielded the same estimates. By contrast, previous case-control analytical approaches yielded estimates that appeared strongly protective (odds ratio 0.57, 95% CI: 0.36, 0.91, for ≥5 vs. <5 years of statin use). CONCLUSIONS: Our study demonstrates how to explicitly emulate a target trial using case-control data to reduce discrepancies between observational and randomized trial evidence. This approach may inform future case-control analyses for comparative effectiveness research.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Emulating a target trial in case-control designs: an application to statins and colorectal cancer |
| Location: | England |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1093/ije/dyaa144 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyaa144 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions. |
| Keywords: | Case-control, causal inference, comparative effectiveness, electronic health records, target trial |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Health Informatics UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Health Informatics > Clinical Epidemiology |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10112011 |
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