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Heart and blood vessel disease linked to more deaths after cancer

By December 2021, 72% of adults with cardiovascular disease before cancer diagnosis had died, compared with 38% without it.

Paper by Md Mijanur Rahman, Katy J L Bell, Grace Joshy, 8 more authorsXue Qin Yu · UNSW Sydney
Figure 1. Patterns of pre‐existing and post‐cancer newly documented major cardiovascular disease (CVD).
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Figure 1. Patterns of pre‐existing and post‐cancer newly documented major cardiovascular disease (CVD).Patterns of pre‐existing and post‐cancer newly documented major cardiovascular disease (CVD).Rahman et al.
Cohort study of 344,336 adults with primary invasive cancer, median 6.8 yearsPopulations

Limit: Smoking could affect both cardiovascular disease and survival, but analyses did not adjust for it

Edited by Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News

Paper
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Researchers conducted an observational cohort study of 344,336 adults aged 18 or older with primary invasive cancer in New South Wales, Australia. They linked cancer, hospital and death records for diagnoses from 2006 to 2016. Follow-up continued through December 2021, with a median of 6.8 years.

Hospital records documented major heart and blood vessel disease in 18% during the five years before cancer diagnosis. Among 281,661 people without this history, 27% had it newly documented afterward. Disease documented before or after diagnosis was associated with higher mortality from cancer, cardiovascular disease and any cause, though links varied by cancer type. By December 2021, cancer deaths occurred in 48% with pre-existing disease versus 30% without. Cardiovascular deaths occurred in 11% versus 5%, and deaths from any cause in 72% versus 38%.

Why it matters

Pre-existing cardiovascular disease was more common at older ages, making it an important consideration in older adults’ cancer survivorship care. The authors called for care addressing both cancer and cardiovascular health.

Caveats

This observational study cannot show that cardiovascular disease caused higher mortality, and newly documented disease does not necessarily mean newly developed disease. The cohort excluded people younger than 18 and invasive non-melanoma skin cancers.

From the paper

Result

The sHR for cancer mortality ranged from 0.99 (95% CI: 0.85–1.13) in people diagnosed with cancer of the kidney to 1.81 (95% CI = 1.71–1.91) for those diagnosed with lymphoma …

Results, Pre‐Existing CVD and Mortality Outcomes

Limitation

Additionally, we measured pre‐existing CVD within 5 years before cancer diagnosis, which might also underestimate pre‐existing CVD, as it excludes CVD that was only recorded more than 5 years before cancer diagnosis.

Study Strengths and Limitations

Quoted word for word from the full text on PubMed Central.

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