Cancer History Linked to Increased Risk for Incident CVD

WEDNESDAY, April 19, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Cancer history is associated with an increased risk for incident cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), according to a study published online April 18 in Heart.

Zahra Raisi-Estabragh, M.D., Ph.D., from the William Harvey Research Institute at Queen Mary University of London, and colleagues ascertained cancer and CVD diagnoses using health record linkage to examine incident cardiovascular outcomes in U.K. Biobank participants with previous cancer. Participants with cancer history (breast, lung, prostate, colorectal, uterus, and hematological) were propensity score-matched for vascular risk factors to controls without cancer history. Data were included for 18,714 participants with cancer history; 1,354 underwent cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging.

The researchers found that the burden of vascular risk factors and prevalent CVDs was high for participants with cancer. There was an association observed for hematologic cancer with an increased risk for all incident CVDs considered (subdistribution hazard ratios, 1.92 to 3.56), larger chamber volumes, lower ejection fractions, and poorer left ventricular (LV) strain. Associations were seen for breast cancer with an increased risk for selected CVDs (nonischemic cardiomyopathy [NICM], heart failure, pericarditis, and venous thromboembolism [VTE]: subdistribution hazard ratios, 1.34 to 2.03), heart failure/NICM death, hypertensive disease death, lower LV ejection fraction, and a lower LV global function index. An increased risk for pericarditis, heart failure, and CVD death was seen in association with lung cancer. Prostate cancer correlated with an increased risk for VTE.

"Our results support consideration of cancer-specific exposures in cardiovascular risk stratification and lower thresholds for treatment of modifiable risk factors in this patient group," the authors write.

One author provides consultancy to Cardiovascular Imaging.

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