Heart Failure Tied to Increased Cancer Risk, Study Finds
People with heart failure may live for many years and should continue to get regular cancer screenings, experts say. People with heart failure may be at increased risk for cancer. Cancer patients are usually monitored for heart failure because some cancer drugs can damage the heart. Now a new study suggests that heart failure patients, who may live for many years with the condition, might benefit by being monitored for cancer. Researchers used a German health database to track 100,124 patients with heart failure, comparing them with the same number of controls who did not have heart failure. All were cancer-free at the start, and the scientists tracked their incidence of cancer over the following 10 years. The study is in the journal ESC Heart Failure. The two groups were matched for age, sex, age, obesity and the incidence of diabetes, although the researchers lacked data on socioeconomic status, smoking, alcohol consumption and physical activity, which are all known to affect the risk for cancer.