Dopamine agonists and risk of lung cancer in patients with restless legs syndrome

Abstract

Purpose To examine the association between long‐term use of dopamine agonists (DAs) and the risk of lung cancer in patients with restless legs syndrome (RLS). Methods We conducted a retrospective cohort study using Optum Clinformatics® database. We included adults ≥40 years diagnosed with RLS during the study period (1/2006–12/2016). Follow‐up started with the first RLS diagnosis and ended on the earliest of: incident diagnosis of lung cancer, end of enrollment in the database or end of the study period. The exposure of interest was cumulative duration of DAs use, measured in a time‐varying manner. We constructed a multivariable Cox regression model to estimate HRs and 95% CIs for the association between lung cancer and cumulative durations of DA use, adjusting for potential confounding variables. Results We identified 295 042 patients with a diagnosis of RLS. The mean age of the cohort was 62.9; 66.6% were women and 82.3% were white. The prevalence of any DA exposure was 40.3%. Compared to the reference group (no use and ≤1 year), the crude HRs for lung cancer were 1.16 (95% CI 0.99–1.36) and 1.14 (95% CI 0.86–1.51) for 1–3 years and >3 years of cumulative DA use, respectively. The adjusted HR for lung cancer was 1.05 (95% CI 0.88–1.25) for 1–3 years and 1.02 (95% CI 0.76–1.37) for >3 years of cumulative DA use, respectively. Conclusions At typical doses for the clinical management of RLS, long‐term DA use was not associated with risk of lung cancer.