The association between donor and recipient statin use and infections after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation

Recent studies have reported that statin use may be associated with improved outcomes in patients with sepsis or respiratory viral infections. In the setting of allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT), it has been shown that donor and recipient statin use is associated with reduced risks of GVHD. We assessed in retrospective analysis whether donor or recipient statin use impacts infection risk after allogeneic HCT ( n =1191). Although recipient statin use was associated with the increased incidence of Gram-negative bacteremia (adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) 2.22, (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.2–4.2), P= 0.01) without affecting mortality, donor statin use was associated with an increased incidence of respiratory viral infections in recipients (aHR 2.84 (95% CI 1.3–6.0), P =0.007). The overall incidence of invasive fungal infections and CMV reactivation and CMV disease were not impacted by recipient or donor statin use. In conclusion, this study suggests that recipient or donor statin use may be associated with an increased incidence of some infections without adversely affecting mortality.