A new American study shows that there is an elevated risk of cardiovascular disease for 35% of patients who have survived cancer, compared to 23% of people who have never had it.
- The researchers sifted through the health data of 15,000 adults, 13% of whom were cancer survivors.
- The study data showed that people with a history of cancer were more at risk of developing diabetes or having higher systolic blood pressure, two cardiovascular risk factors.
- The results also show that having had cancer increases the risk of later developing cardiovascular disease by 8%.
Is cancer, like obesity, cholesterol, diabetes or smoking, a risk factor for cardiovascular disease?
This is the conclusion reached by a team from the College of Public Health at Ohio State. In a study published in the journal PLOS ONEthey explain that having a history of cancer significantly increases (8%) the risk of developing cardiovascular disease within ten years, compared to 5% in the population who have never developed cancer.
Better take into account the cardiotoxicity of cancer treatments
“We know that obesity, cancer and cardiovascular disease share some common risk factors and that in addition to these shared risk factors, cancer patients also receive treatments, including radiotherapy and chemotherapy, which can affect their cardiovascular health – we call this cardiotoxicity”explains Xiaochen Zhang, lead author of the work.
For her colleague Ashley Felix, associate professor of epidemiology at Ohio State and co-author of the study, it is now essential to think more about the risks unrelated to cancer after a diagnosis, including cardiovascular disease. “We don’t want people to survive cancer to die prematurely from heart disease or stroke, so we need to make sure cancer patients, and their healthcare team, are aware of this increased risk. .”
The researchers therefore studied the link between cancer and cardiovascular disease by examining data provided by 15,095 adults aged 40 to 79. While none of the subjects had declared a history of cardiovascular disease, nearly 13% of them nevertheless declared that they had had cancer.
Higher blood pressure and diabetes in cancer survivors
When researchers compared individual risk factors for cardiovascular disease by cancer type, they found that older age, higher systolic blood pressure, and a personal history of diabetes were more common among cancer survivors. .
And these risk factors do not spare young adults, the researchers point out. “If we continue to observe the increase in cancer incidence in young adults, we can expect to see a greater burden of cardiovascular disease in these people”, says Professor Zhang. According to her, the good news is that these young patients still have time to modify their lifestyle and thus reduce their cardiovascular risk.
“In addition to carefully monitoring cancer survivors for cardiovascular disease – and educating them about the high risk – healthcare providers have the opportunity to guide patients towards interventions that can reduce their risk”she concludes.
.
