Vascular Aging Is Accelerated in Hematological Cancer Survivors Who Undergo Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplant

Survivors of allogeneic stem cell transplant (SCT) receive intensive cancer treatments that are associated with cardiovascular dysfunction. Markers of vascular age can indicate early signs of adverse (cardio)vascular changes; however, the impact of SCT on these makers is unknown. We aimed to determine the short (3 months) and longer-term (≥2 years) effect of SCT on markers of vascular age in hematologic cancer survivors compared with an age-matched noncancer control group.

The short-term effects of SCT, markers of vascular age (aortic compliance, arterial elastance, and ventricular-vascular coupling) were assessed via cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (cardiac and aortic volumes) before and ≈3 months post-SCT in 13 short-term survivors and compared with 11 controls. The longer-term impact was assessed by comparing 14 long-term survivors (6.5 [2-20] years post-SCT) to the short-term survivors (post-SCT) and controls (n=16).

The groups were similar for age and body mass index. In the short-term survivors, no significant group-by-time interactions were observed for any markers of vascular aging from pretransplant to posttransplant (net difference for change in compliance between groups -0.07 [95% CI, -1.49 to 1.35]). For the time-course analysis, aortic compliance was significantly lower in both SCT groups (overall P=0.007) compared with controls, whereas ventricular-vascular coupling was higher in both survivor groups as was arterial elastance in long-term SCT survivors (ie, worse; P<0.01 for all).

This study provides evidence of an accelerated vascular aging phenotype in allogeneic SCT survivors and provides insight into the increased burden of cardiovascular disease among hematologic cancer survivors.