Cancer incidence and mortality according to pre-existing heart failure in a community-based cohort

BACKGROUND Studies assessing whether heart failure (HF) is associated with cancer and cancer-related mortality have yielded conflicting results.OBJECTIVES This study assessed cancer incidence and mortality according to pre-existing HF in a community-based cohort.METHODS Among individuals $50 years of age from the Puglia region in Italy with administrative health data from 2002 to 2018, no cancer within 3 years before the baseline evaluation, and $5-year follow-up, the study matched 104,020 subjects with HF at baseline with 104,020 control subjects according to age, sex, drug-derived complexity index, Charlson comorbidity index, and follow-up duration. Cancer incidence and mortality were defined based on International Classification of Diseases-Ninth Revision codes in hospitalization records or death certificates.RESULTS The incidence rate of cancer in HF patients and control subjects was 21.36 (95% CI: 20.98-21.74) and 12.42 (95% CI: 12.14-12.72) per 1000 person-years, respectively, with the HR being 1.76 (95% CI: 1.71-1.81). Cancer mortality was also higher in HF patients than control subjects (HR: 4.11; 95% CI: 3.86-4.38), especially in those <70 years of age (HR: 7.54; 95% CI: 6.33-8.98 vs HR: 3.80; 95% CI: 3.44-4.19 for 70-79 years of age; and HR: 3.10; 95% CI: 2.81-3.43 for $80 years of age). The association between HF and cancer mortality was confirmed in a competing risk analysis (subdistribution HR: 3.48; 95% CI: 3.27-3.72). The HF-related excess risk applied to the majority of cancer types. Among HF patients, prescription of high-dose loop diuretic was associated with higher cancer incidence (HR: 1.11; 95% CI: 1.031.21) and mortality (HR: 1.35; 95% CI: 1.19-1.53). CONCLUSIONS HF is associated with an increased risk of cancer and cancer-related mortality, which may be heightened in decompensated states. (J Am Coll Cardiol CardioOnc 2022;4:98-109) (c) 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier on behalf of the American College of Cardiology Foundation. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).