Shared Risk Factors in Cardiovascular Disease and Cancer

Abstract

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer are the two leading causes of death worldwide. Although commonly thought of as two separate disease entities, CVD and cancer possess various similarities and possible interactions, including a number of similar risk factors (e.g. obesity, diabetes), suggesting a shared biology for which there is emerging evidence. While chronic inflammation is an indispensible feature of the pathogenesis and progression of both CVD and cancer, additional mechanisms can be found at their intersection. Therapeutic advances, despite improving longevity, have increased the overlap between these diseases, but there are now millions of cancer survivors at risk of developing CVD. Cardiac risk factors have a major impact on subsequent treatment-related cardiotoxicity. In this review, we explore the risk factors common to both CVD and cancer, highlighting the major epidemiologic studies and potential biological mechanisms that account for them.

Atrial Fibrillation and Risk of Cancer: A Danish Population‐Based Cohort Study

“…In cancer, chronic inflammation promotes carcinogenesis and tumor progression 34. Several common risk factors, such as alcohol and obesity, may share biology with AF and cancer because of proinflammatory and inflammatory causal pathways 6. Third, undiagnosed AF is common,5 and cancer symptoms may lead to diagnostic evaluations that detect both AF and cancer.…”

“…The lifetime risk is 1 in 4 according to previous studies,2, 3 and more than 1 in 3 based on recent data 4. Several risk factors have been identified, many of which are also risk factors for several types of cancer, such as age, smoking, alcohol consumption, and obesity 5, 6. As shared risk factors link general cardiovascular disease with cancer,6, 7 the overlap between AF and cancer may constitute a mutual cause.…”

“…Several risk factors have been identified, many of which are also risk factors for several types of cancer, such as age, smoking, alcohol consumption, and obesity 5, 6. As shared risk factors link general cardiovascular disease with cancer,6, 7 the overlap between AF and cancer may constitute a mutual cause. However, the identification of a mutual cause is challenging because the association between AF and cancer seems very complex and may include bidirectional interrelations of several factors, many of which are not causal 8…”

Stress Echocardiography Positivity Predicts Cancer Death

“…This finding is apparently counterintuitive but not totally unexpected for several reasons. Cancer and ischemic heart disease share many risk factors (eg, obesity and diabetes mellitus),18 underlying biology (eg, chronic inflammation, somatic DNA instability),19, 20 and possibly iatrogenic links (since radiation widely used in CAD diagnosis and treatment is also a risk factor for cancer, in the same way—conceptually—as radiation and drugs used for diagnosis and treatment of cancer are an established risk factor for ischemic heart disease) 21, 22, 23. The interaction analysis established that the relationship between SE result and cancer risk was valid both in smokers and in nonsmoker patients, which ruled out the smoking history influence on the relation between SE result and cancer.…”

Editorial Mitochondria, brain, heart and body

“…For example, people with subclinical cardiovascular diseases are at higher risk for Alzheimer's disease [1], Parkinson's disease is associated with varied risk of cancer [2], Autism Spectrum Disorders and cancer have overlapping genes and molecular pathways [3,4], heart disease and cancer share common risk factors [5], etc. It is intriguing how are these conditions that appear to be completely different linked together.…”