Heart Failure May Not Increase Risk for Subsequent Cancer in Men

But this study — despite its strengths of size and long follow-up — is not definitive because of other design weaknesses.

Several small studies have suggested a heightened cancer risk in patients with heart failure (HF). To learn more, researchers used data from the Physicians' Health Study I and II, in which participants annually completed health questionnaires, to identify 28,341 men without cancer or HF at enrollment.

Of this group, 1420 reported that they had received HF diagnoses (mean age at diagnosis, 75). During the median follow-up of 20 years, 177 men with HF developed cancer at a median of 3.4 years after the HF diagnosis. The incidence of cancer in participants with and without HF did not differ in unadjusted analysis or in analyses that used several models to adjust for covariates. In an exploratory analysis examining specific types of cancer, only…

Reviewing Author

Joel M. Gore, MD

Disclosures

Grant/Research SupportNIH–National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

Joel M. Gore, MD

Disclosures

Grant/Research SupportNIH–National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

Heart Failure May Not Increase Risk for Subsequent Cancer in Men

Topics

Reviewing Author