CVD risk lower in prostate cancer survivors

The risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) appear to be lower among survivors of prostate cancer (PC), a recent study has found.

The study included 48,298 PC patients, who were age-matched 1:3 with a general-population control. The study endpoints were newly diagnosed stroke or ishaemic heart disease (IHD), as well as death. Participants who were below 19 years of age, had other cancers, or had a previous history of IHD were deemed ineligible.  

The final screening cohort included 29,365 PC survivors who had been matched to 105,347 noncancer comparators. Over a mean follow-up of 3.65 and 3.85 years, respectively, PC survivors carried a slightly but significantly lower risk of IHD than controls (adjusted hazard ratio [HR], 0.89, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.83–0.96).

This protective effect was also found for stroke (adjusted HR, 0.90, 95 percent CI, 0.86–0.95). On the other hand, the risk of death was higher in PC survivors (adjusted HR, 1.61, 95 percent CI, 1.57–1.64).

Treatment approach appeared to affect this interaction, the researchers reported. Patients who underwent curative surgery had better IHD outlook than controls (adjusted HR, 0.69, 95 percent CI, 0.56–0.85). The same was true for stroke (adjusted HR, 0.75, 95 percent CI, 0.65–0.87).

Patients who received androgen deprivation therapy on top of surgery also saw a marginally lower risk of stroke than controls (adjusted HR, 0.78, 95 percent CI, 0.67–0.91). On the other hand, those who were under active surveillance/watchful waiting had a similar CVD risk as noncancer controls.