Key result
Cancer survivors >12 months post-treatment show no increased AF risk versus the general population.
Why the study?
It is unclear whether cancer survivors have an increased risk of AF compared to the general population, and specific screening recommendations for oncology patients are lacking.
Does cancer survivorship (>12 months post-treatment) increase the risk of atrial fibrillation compared to the general population?
Meta-Analysis (n=1,406,464)
Does cancer survivorship (>12 months post-treatment) increase the risk of atrial fibrillation compared to the general population?
Cancer survivors >12 months post-treatment do not appear to have a significantly increased rate of atrial fibrillation compared to the general population, though high study heterogeneity warrants caution.
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
May support AF screening in cancer survivors; leaves open whether detection rates exceed general population enough to change guidelines.
Background Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a common cardiac complication during cancer treatment. It is unclear if cancer survivors have increased AF risk when compared to the population. AF screening is now recommended in patients ≥65 years, however there are no specific recommendations in the oncology population. We sought to compare the AF detection rate of cancer survivors compared to the general population. Methods We searched the Pubmed, Embase and Web of Science databases using search terms related to AF and cancer mapped to subject headings. We included English language studies, limited to adults > 18 years who were > 12 months post completion of cancer treatment. Using a random-effects model we calculated the overall AF detection rate. Meta-regression analysis was performed to assess for potential causes for study heterogeneity. Results Sixteen studies were included in the study. The combined AF detection rate amongst all the studies was 4.7% (95% C.I 4.0-5.4%), which equated to a combined annualised AF rate of 0.7% (95% C.I 0.1–0.98%). There was significant heterogeneity between studies ( I 2 = 99.8%, p < 0.001). In the breast cancer cohort (n = 6 studies), the combined annualised AF rate was 0.9% (95% C.I 0.1–2.3%), with significant heterogeneity ( I 2 = 99.9%, p < 0.001). Conclusion Whilst the results should be interpreted with caution due to study heterogeneity, AF rates in patients with cancer survival >12 months were not significantly increased compared to the general population. Study Registration Open Science Framework - DOI: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/APSYG .
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Bao et al. (2023) conducted a meta-analysis in Cancer (n=1,406,464). Cancer survivorship (>12 months post-treatment) vs. General population was evaluated on Annualized rate of atrial fibrillation (95% CI 0.1-0.98). Cancer survivors >12 months post-treatment had a combined annualized atrial fibrillation rate of 0.7%, which was not significantly increased compared to the general population.
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