No higher cancer risk seen for heart failure patients

(HealthDay)—Heart failure is not associated with an increased risk of cancer, according to a study published in the April 10 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Senthil Selvaraj, M.D., from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and colleagues used data from the Physicians' Health Studies I and II (1982-1995 and 1997-2011) to assess whether heart failure is associated with cancer incidence and cancer-specific mortality.

The researchers found that 1,420 of 28,341 participants developed heart failure. Over a median 19.9 years of follow-up, a total of 7,363 cancers developed. heart failure was not associated with cancer incidence in either unadjusted (hazard ratio, 0.92; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.8 to 1.08) or adjusted analysis (hazard ratio, 1.05; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.86 to 1.29). Furthermore, there was no association between heart failure and site-specific cancer incidence or cancer-specific mortality.

"In contrast to recent studies suggesting an increased risk of cancer among heart failure patients, we found that heart failure was not associated with cancer risk using the time-varying method," the authors write.

Two authors disclosed financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry.