KEY TAKEAWAYS
- The study aimed to examine patterns of cardiovascular mortality within each breast cancer subtype.
- The results showed that patients undergoing chemo faced an increased risk of cardiovascular mortality.
Breast cancer treatment, including chemotherapy (chemo), is linked to cardiovascular mortality. Variations among breast cancer subtypes underscore the need for comprehensive understanding and management.
Toàn Minh Ngô and the team aimed to analyze patterns of cardiovascular mortality within each subtype of breast cancer.
The study utilized retrospective data from the SEER database, focusing on breast cancer patients who received chemo and were diagnosed between 2013 and 2020. Subgroups were categorized by cancer subtype, stage, patient age, and cause of death (COD). The analysis involved assessing the percentage of cardiovascular CODs, calculating odds ratios (ORs), determining the 5-year cumulative crude probability of death, and evaluating standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) for each subgroup.
Among 23,263 breast cancer patients who did not survive, 5.8% succumbed to cardiovascular disease. Notably, the HER2+/HR+ and HER2+/HR- subtypes demonstrated the highest ORs and percentages of cardiovascular COD at 8.21% and 6.55%, respectively.
As stages advanced and patient age decreased, cardiovascular SMRs increased. The HER2+/HR- subtype exhibited the highest cardiovascular SMR at 0.83 (P< 0.05), followed by TNBC at 0.78 (P< 0.05). Furthermore, the 5-year cumulative probability of cardiovascular CODs was highest in the HER2+/HR- subtype (1.02 ± 0.11%) and TNBC subtype (0.95 ± 0.07%).
The study concluded that breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy face heightened cardiovascular mortality risks, particularly pronounced among those with aggressive subtypes like HER2-enriched and TNBC, advanced age, or prolonged treatment in HER2+/HR+ cancer. No external funding was provided for the research.
Source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38392041/
Ngô TM, Lê ÁN, Đinh DPH. (2024) ‘’The Impact of Chemotherapy on Cardiovascular Mortality across Breast Cancer Subtypes.’’ Current Oncology. 2024; 31(2):649-659. https://doi.org/10.3390/curroncol31020047.
