Young Adult Cancer Survivors at Increased Risk for Cardiovascular Disease

A recent study examined the risk of cardiovascular disease for the survivors of adolescent and young adult cancer.¹

Researchers at Kaiser Permanente Southern California and University of Alabama at Birmingham identified a cohort of 2-year young adult cancer survivors for review. The 5673 survivors had cancer diagnosed between age 15 years and 39 years at Kaiser Permanente Southern California.

A comparison group of 57 617 persons were matched to the cancer survivors on the basis of Kaiser Permanente Southern California membership, calendar year, and basic demographic information.

Patients were followed and evaluated for heart failure, stroke, and coronary artery disease, using Poisson regression to determine the correlation between survivorship and cardiovascular disease (adjusted for risk factors such as diabetes, smoking status, hypertension, weight, etc).

The research team determined that the young adult and adolescent cancer survivors had approximately double the risk of incurring cardiovascular problems compared with the cancer-free cohort (adjusted incidence rate ratio, 2.37).

The presence of any cardiovascular risk factors increased the risk of cardiovascular disease in the cancer survivors. Survivors of breast cancer and leukemia were found to be at the highest risk for postcancer cardiovascular disease.

REFERENCE

1. Chao C, Xu L, Bhatia S, et al. Cardiovascular disease risk profiles in survivors of adolescent and young adult (AYA) cancer: the Kaiser Permanente AYA Cancer Survivors Study [published online ahead of print March 7, 2016]. J Clin Oncol. doi:10.1200/JCO.2015.65.5845.