Antihistamines Improve the Survival of Lung Cancer: A 10-Year Cohort Study of Tertiary Hospital in Taiwan.

[INTRODUCTION] Antihistamines (AHs) have beneficial effects as adjuvant anticancer agent in several preclinical and observational studies. We aimed to evaluate the effect of AHs on stage IV lung cancer patients.

[METHODS] We used data from the Cancer Registry Database provided by the Cancer Center of Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital to investigate whether AH use is associated with improved survival among patients with stage IV lung cancer. We analyzed AHs use across various patient subgroups, including sex, age, comorbidities, co-medications, smoking status, histologic type, treatment modality, and survival time. The primary endpoint was overall survival (OS).

[RESULTS] A total of 1,886 lung cancer patients were enrolled. Of them, 41 (2.1%) patients were AH users, 1,845 (97.8%) were AH nonusers before lung cancer diagnosis, and 594 (31.6%) patients were AH users, 1,292 (68.4%) were AH nonusers after lung cancer diagnosis. AH users were more to have comorbidities with hypertension (p < 0.001), diabetes mellitus (p < 0.001), allergic disease (p < 0.001), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (p = 0.002), co-medications with targeted therapy (p < 0.001), and nonaspirin NSAID (p < 0.001). Pre-diagnostic AH users did not show improved survival outcomes. Post-diagnostic AH users tend to have a better OS among patients with a survival period of more than 90 days (median, 28.4 months and 15.1 months, respectively; HR: 0.49; 95% confidence interval: 0.43-0.55).

[CONCLUSION] AHs use was associated with improved OS in patients with stage IV lung cancer. Further prospective studies are needed to better elucidate the role of AHs in the treatment of lung cancer.