Does a history of cancer affect the risk of cardiovascular death, HF hospitalization, non-CV death, and all-cause death in patients with HFrEF or HFpEF?
A history of cancer in HFrEF patients is associated with increased risks of HF hospitalization and non-CV death, but does not significantly impact outcomes in HFpEF patients.
AIMS: Heart failure (HF) therapy trials usually exclude cancer patients. We examined the association between cancer history and outcomes in trial participants with HF and reduced (HFrEF) or preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). METHODS AND RESULTS: We combined PARADIGM-HF and ATMOSPHERE, which enrolled HFrEF patients (n = 15 415) and we pooled HFpEF patients (ejection fraction ≥45%) enrolled in PARAGON-HF and CHARM-Preserved (n = 7363). The associations between cancer history, cardiovascular (CV) death, HF hospitalization, non-CV and all-cause death in these trials were examined. Incident cancer diagnoses during these trials were also measured. There were 658 (4.3%) and 624 (8.5%) patients with a cancer history in the HFrEF and HFpEF trials, respectively. HFrEF patients with a cancer history had a higher risk of HF hospitalization (adjusted hazard ratio HR 1.28; 95% confidence interval CI 1.07-1.52, p = 0.007) and non-CV death (adjusted HR 1.57; 95% CI 1.16-2.12, p = 0.003) than those without. The risks of other outcomes were similar. There were no differences in the risk of any outcome in HFpEF patients with and without a cancer history. Adjusting for age and sex, the incidence of new cancer in the HFrEF and HFpEF trials was 1.09 (95% CI 0.83-1.36) and 1.07 (95% CI 0.81-1.32) per 100 person-years, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Although participants in HFrEF trials with a cancer history had higher risks of HF hospitalization and non-CV death than those without, the risks of CV and all-cause death were similar. Outcomes in HFpEF patients with and without a cancer history were similar. Incident cancer diagnoses were similar in HFrEF and HFpEF trials.
Dobbin et al. (Wed,) studied this question.