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Heart rate and risk of cancer death in healthy men

Xavier Jouven1, Sylvie Escolano, David Celermajer

  • 1INSERM PARCC University Paris Descartes UMR-S970, Paris, France. xavier.jouven@inserm.fr

Plos One
|August 10, 2011
PubMed

Insights

Higher resting and exercise heart rate are linked to increased cancer mortality risk in men. This study highlights heart rate as a significant predictor of cancer death, even after accounting for other risk factors.

Area of Science:

  • Cardiology
  • Oncology
  • Epidemiology

Background:

  • Previous studies suggest a link between heart rate and non-cardiac mortality.
  • This research systematically investigates heart rate's predictive value for cancer mortality.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To determine if resting and exercise heart rate parameters predict cancer mortality.
  • To assess the association between heart rate variability and cancer death risk.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of data from 6101 French working men (aged 42-53) in the Paris Prospective Study I.
  • Measurement of resting heart rate, heart rate during exercise, recovery heart rate, and change in resting heart rate over 5 years.
  • 25-year follow-up for mortality, including 758 cancer deaths, with adjustments for age, tobacco, and cardiovascular risk factors.

Main Results:

  • Strong, graded, and significant associations found between all heart rate parameters and cancer deaths.
  • Men in the highest quartile of resting heart rate had a 2.4-fold increased risk of cancer death (p<0.0001) after adjustments.
  • Poor heart rate increase during exercise, poor decrease during recovery, and greater heart rate increase over time were also significantly linked to cancer death (p<0.0001 for all).

Conclusions:

  • Resting and exercise heart rate show consistent, graded, and highly significant associations with subsequent cancer mortality in men.
  • Heart rate parameters are significant predictors of cancer mortality, independent of traditional cardiovascular risk factors.
Abstract

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