A new study has found that at least one in 10 cancer survivors are more likely to die from cardiovascular problems rather than their actual illness.
The study published in the European Heart Journal looked at more than 3 million Americans with 28 different types of cancers for the last four decades.
Researchers said that it is important to pay more attention to a cardiovascular risk of those who survived cancer, suggesting doctors to be more cautious and monitor cancer survivors accordingly.
The researchers found that among more than 3 million cancer patients, more than 38 percent died from cancer and over 11 percent from cardiovascular disease, of which, most of them died due to heart disease.
They also found that most cancer survivors who died from cardiovascular disease had cancers of bladder, prostate, bowel, uterus, breast, and larynx.
The authors explained that the cardiovascular risk could be due to the side effects of chemotherapy or radiotherapy. And the risk was high than that in the general population. They said cancer patients were particularly at elevated risk.
Lead study author and radiation oncologist Dr. Nicholas Zaorsky from Penn State Cancer Institute said that recognizing the risk could help cancer patients to live more healthily in the long run.
“Increasing awareness of this risk may spur cancer survivors to implement healthy lifestyle behaviors that not only decrease their risk of cardiovascular disease, but also the risk of cancer recurrence,” said Dr. Zaorsky.
Head Information Nurse of Cancer Research UK Martin Ledwick said, “Doctors should be aware of this research as it suggests cancer patients need to be monitored more closely after treatment, for heart disease and stroke.”
“But it doesn’t tell us why some cancer patients may be at higher risk of dying from cardiovascular disease,” Ledwick continued. “For some, it might be treatment-related – radiotherapy to the chest and some chemotherapy drugs can lead to a higher risk of heart disease.”
He added, “But some of the cancers included in the study share lifestyle risk factors with cardiovascular disease – for example, obesity and smoking, which might also explain the increased risk. This is another reason why it’s important for everyone to have a healthy lifestyle.”
Prof. Metin Avkiran from the British Heart Foundation said, “The study offered further evidence that, compared with the general population, cancer survivors are at much greater risk of death from heart and circulatory diseases.”
“We need more research to understand why this is, and whether factors other than the known damaging effects of some anti-cancer treatments on the heart and blood vessels are at play,” he added. Avkiran added, “What is becoming increasingly clear is that cancer doctors and cardiologists need to work together from an early stage to try and minimize the risk of patients surviving cancer but succumbing to heart and circulatory diseases.”
