For a study, the researchers sought to determine the link between cancer radiotherapy and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality and assess the relative risk of CVD deaths in the general population and among cancer patients who had radiotherapy. Cancer statistics from 16 sites were retrieved and analysed from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database. The association between radiation and cardiovascular-specific survival was investigated using multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression analysis. By comparing the observed deaths of cancer patients treated with radiotherapy to the expected deaths of the general population, the standardised mortality ratio for CVD fatalities was calculated. 2,92,102 (13.19%) of the 22,14,944 patients identified in the database died of CVD. Radiotherapy was found to be an independent risk factor for cardiovascular specific survival among patients with lung and bronchus, cervix uteri, corpus uteri, and urinary bladder malignancies in multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression models. Those with cancer who received radiotherapy had a poorer long-term cardiovascular specific survival rate than patients who did not get radiotherapy. Patients with lung and bronchus cancers, cervix uteri cancers, corpus uteri cancers, and urinary bladder tumours who had radiotherapy had a greater rate of CVD fatalities than the general population. With increasing age at cancer diagnosis, the standardised mortality ratio declined dramatically, gradually decreased within 10 years of diagnosis, and climbed beyond 10 years of diagnosis. In patients with lung and bronchus tumours and cervix uteri, corpus uteri, and urinary bladder tumours, radiotherapy was linked to a lower cardiovascular-specific survival rate. Cardiovascular problems were monitored for a long time following radiation.
Source:www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/JAHA.121.023802
