UK men with heart disease at higher risk of developing and dying from cancer

Millions of men with heart disease have a higher risk of developing and dying from cancer, according to a decades-long study.

The biggest drivers behind male cases were smoking, obesity and drinking too much alcohol, researchers said, with the link most pronounced in lung and oesophageal cancers.

Analysing health data from 22,000 Britons over 25 years, researchers at the University of Aberdeen and Keele University discovered stark gender differences in outcomes of people living with heart disease.

About half the participants – 11,000 – had cardiovascular disease (CVD) at the start of the study, or developed it over the next three decades.

The lifetime risk of cancer among those with CVD was higher in men (17.3%) compared with women (12.8%), the study found. In those without CVD, cancer risk was 10.2% among men and 8.2% for women.

Dr Tiberiu Pana, a specialty registrar in cardiology at NHS Grampian and honorary early career clinical research fellow at the University of Aberdeen, said: “We found that cancer incidence and death were higher in people with cardiovascular disease than in those without – a relationship we already knew a bit about.

“However, through looking at this large patient group over a very long period of time we were able to examine it more thoroughly. We have identified clear differences between men and women across a range of factors in those with cardiovascular disease and all types of cancer.”

Further analysis of cancers outside of the reproductive system suggested that people with heart disease faced higher rates of gastric, oesophageal, lung, bowel and non-melanoma skin cancers.

These were also more prominent among men, according to the study. The results were published in the European Heart Journal.

Men with CVD also had an increased risk of dying from gastric, oesophageal and lung cancers compared with those without heart disease. This may be driven by common risk factors between CVD and cancer, researchers said.

Mamas Mamas, a professor of cardiology at Keele University, said more research was needed to better understand the reasons behind the increased cancer risk in people with heart disease.

“Furthermore, whilst cardio-oncology services have focused mainly on cancer patients preventing the development of cardiovascular diseases, we need better pathways that can identify and prevent cancer development in patients with cardiac conditions.”

Nicola Smith, a senior health information manager at the charity Cancer Research UK, said: “Many causes of cancer and heart disease overlap, which may explain why there’s a link between the two, and both of these diseases are more common in people from deprived areas.”

Cancer is slightly more likely to affect men, partly because smoking rates are higher, Smith said, but more research was needed to confirm the stronger link between heart disease and cancer in men compared to women.

“If anyone is concerned about their risk of cancer or heart disease, there are proven steps they can take to reduce it. These include not smoking, keeping a healthy weight, and cutting down on alcohol.”