Cardiovascular Mortality Risk Among Patients with Liver Cancer: A SEER Database Study

Area of Science:

• Oncology
• Cardiology
• Public Health

Background:

• Liver cancer patients have unique health outcome considerations.
• Cardiovascular mortality (CVM) is a critical factor in overall health outcomes for cancer patients.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the risk of cardiovascular mortality (CVM) in patients diagnosed with liver cancer.
• To identify demographic and clinical predictors of CVM in liver cancer patients.

Main Methods:

• Utilized data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database (2000-2017).
• Calculated standardized mortality rates (SMR) against the general population.
• Employed multivariate competing risk models for comprehensive analysis.

Main Results:

• Analyzed 70,733 liver cancer patient records, identifying 1,954 CVM cases.
• Observed an overall CVM SMR of 12.01 (95% CI: 11.48-12.55) in liver cancer patients.
• Identified sex, race, age, diagnosis year, pathology, stage, treatment, and marital status as independent CVM predictors.

Conclusions:

• Liver cancer patients exhibit a substantially elevated risk of CVM compared to the general population.
• Prompt identification of high-risk patient subgroups is essential.
• Tailored cardiovascular interventions are crucial for enhancing survival rates in liver cancer patients.