Heart Failure After Myocardial Infarction Is Associated With Increased Risk of Cancer

Heart failure (HF) is associated with excess morbidity and mortality for which noncardiac causes are increasingly recognized. The authors previously described an increased risk of cancer among HF patients compared with community controls.

This study examined whether HF was associated with an increased risk of subsequent cancer among a homogenous population of first myocardial infarction (MI) survivors.

A prospective cohort study was conducted among Olmsted County, Minnesota, residents with incident MI from 2002 to 2010. Patients with prior cancer or HF diagnoses were excluded.

A total of 1,081 participants (mean age 64 ± 15 years; 60% male) were followed for 5,327 person-years (mean 4.9 ± 3.0 years). A total of 228 patients developed HF, and 98 patients developed cancer (excluding nonmelanoma skin cancer). Incidence density rates for cancer diagnosis (per 1,000 person-years) were 33.7 for patients with HF and 15.6 for patients without HF (p = 0.002). The hazard ratio (HR) for cancer associated with HF was 2.16 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.39 to 3.35); adjusted for age, sex, and Charlson comorbidity index; HR: 1.71 (95% CI: 1.07 to 2.73). The HRs for mortality associated with cancer were 4.90 (95% CI: 3.10 to 7.74) for HF-free and 3.91 (95% CI: 1.88 to 8.12) for HF patients (p for interaction = 0.76).

Patients who develop HF after MI have an increased risk of cancer. This finding extends our previous report of an elevated cancer risk after HF compared with controls, and calls for a better understanding of shared risk factors and underlying mechanisms.