Source: http://www.everydayhealth.com/heart-health/heart-failure-survivors-face-higher-cancer-risk-study-says.aspx?

Patients who survive heart failure could face an increased cancer risk as high as 86 percent, according to a new study.

A battle with heart failure can be devastating, but the fight isn’t over just because your status changes from patient to survivor. Heart failure survivors face as high as an 86 percent increased risk of being diagnosed with cancer, and the cause is more than just increased overall health awareness, according to a studypublished in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Medical advances have caused an increasing survival rate among heart failure patients, even as the prevalence of heart failure continues to increase.

Survivors are also more likely to die from a non-cardiovascular cause than a condition relating to their hearts. This prompted researchers the American College of Cardiology to determine the relative risks of heart failure survivors being diagnosed with cancer compared to patients without heart failure.

Researchers collected data from 596 heart failure patients, and an equal number of controls, from 1979 to 2002. Patients were split up into two 11-year periods to determine the change in cancer diagnoses over time.

Both groups showed an increased risk of cancer in heart failure patients. From 1979 to 1990, heart failure survivors had a 48 percent increased risk of cancer. That risk increased dramatically to 86 percent from 1991 to 2002.

“Heart failure patients are not only at an increased risk for developing cancer, but the occurrence of cancer increases mortality in these patients,” explained Dr. Veronique Roger, MD, director of the Mayo Clinic Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery and co-author of the study, in a press release. “These findings underscore the importance of cancer surveillance in the management of heart failure patients.”

Researchers attributed the increased cancer risk to factors other than just heart failure survivors being more closely monitored by doctors. These factors included: side effects of newer cardiovascular treatments, stress caused by heart failure, and other heart failure side effects — like inflammation, tissue hypoxia, and hormonal activation.

“Medications could play a big role,” said Navin Rajagopalan, MD, medical director at the University of Kentucky heart failure clinic, who was not involved in the study. “ACE inhibitors are key for heart failure, but there’s never been a clear connection to cancer, even though the incidence has been increasing.”

“But the most interesting theory is that patients with heart failure have a lot of stressors,” said Dr. Rajagopalan. “That could be the link to look into further, because stress could predispose them for cancer. Mental stress plays a role, but stress on the body can also be an important factor.”

Future research will need to look further into the cause of this increased cancer risk, and test these theories to determine how much they contribute to cancer.

These results validate added surveillance of heart failure patients, and should encourage patients and doctors to pay closer attention to health concerns not related to heart disease.

“If a patient is diagnosed with heart failure, we need to pay attention to the entire patient,” Rajagopalan urged. “If you have a major illness you shouldn’t just look at that, but look at other problems too.”

The Heart Disease-Cancer Link

Previous research has also linked heart disease to cancer risk. In 2012, researchers from the Duke Cancer Institute found that having coronary artery disease was associated with a 35 percent increase in prostate cancer risk. This led study authors to believe that taking good care of your heart could also help your prostate, and lower your cancer risk.

The news is not as good for women: Two recent studies from the journals Breast Cancer Research and the New England Journal of Medicine linked heart problems to breast cancer treatment. While the latest American College of Cardiology study attributed side effects of heart failure treatment to a potential increase in cancer risk, these studies found the opposite. That research showed that radiation exposure from chemotherapy for breast cancer was associated with an increased risk of heart disease, and the same has been found for cancer medications.

“Chemotherapy drugs, like for breast cancer, can cause heart disease,” said Dr. Rajagopalan.

Ultimately, patients who monitor their heart failure risk factors will also lower their cancer risk.

“Heart failure patients should make sure to stop behaviors that are associated with cancer, like: smoking, drinking, and poor diets,” concluded Dr. Rajagopalan. “This will help with heart failure and cancer, but patients should also pay attention to their bodies, and see a primary care physician frequently.”

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http://www.nuskin.com/global/library/pdf/products/pip_opt_omega_lr.pdf

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Source: http://www.everydayhealth.com/heart-health/heart-failure-survivors-face-higher-cancer-risk-study-says.aspx?