Survivorship data derived from a U.K. cancer registry make it possible to more closely pinpoint the risk of cardiovascular disease in patients treated for cancer as adolescents and young adults.
Researchers report that 6% of the 2,016 deaths occurring in 200,945 cancer survivors diagnosed between the ages of 15 and 39 years were directly related to cardiovascular disease. A multivariable Poisson regression analysis of data from the Teenage and Young Adult Cancer Survivor Study also showed that survivors who were diagnosed between the ages of 15 and 19 years had 4.2 times the risk (95% confidence interval, 3.4-5.2) of death from cardiovascular disease, compared with their peers in the general population. But for survivors who were aged 35-39 years when diagnosed, that risk decreased to 1.2 times (95% CI, 1.1-1.3) that of their general population peers (P less than .0001). The standardized mortality ratios and absolute excess risks for ischemic heart disease, valvular heart disease, and cardiomyopathy were similar (Circulation. 2016;134:1521-33).
The findings should help clinicians craft more effective after-cancer care, according to Mike Hawkins, DPhil. “It helps them focus the most intensive follow-up care on those most at risk,” Dr. Hawkins, an epidemiology professor and director of the Centre for Childhood Cancer Survivor Studies at the University of Birmingham (England), said in a statement. “It is important for survivors because it empowers them by providing them with their long-term chances of a specific side effect of cancer treatment.”
The most significant relationship between cardiovascular disease and cancer occurred in those diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma, and at an earlier age. Overall, Hodgkin lymphoma survivors had a 3.8 times higher risk of cardiovascular disease–related death than their peers not diagnosed with any cancer. In those diagnosed at age 15-19 years, 6.9% had died from cardiovascular disease by age 55 years, compared with 2% of those who’d been diagnosed at age 35-39 years. Among these two age groups in the general population, fewer than 1% typically die from cardiovascular disease–related deaths. In Hodgkin lymphoma survivors aged 60 years or older, 27.5% of excess deaths were from cardiovascular disease.
Although not stratified by treatment, the study includes risk estimates for other cancers diagnosed in the teen and young adult years, stratified by the age at diagnosis, something the authors of the study noted is “a considerable advance on previous knowledge.”
Survivors of all age groups in the cohort diagnosed with a variety of cancers experienced a greater risk of death from heart disease, compared with their peers in the general population.
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