Better Cardiovascular Health Linked to Lower Cancer Risk

A French prospective cohort study concluded that better cardiovascular health (CVH) and the maintenance or improvement of CVH were associated with a lower risk of cancer. The study population included 13,933 participants (mainly Caucasian, mean age 45.3 years, 24% women). After a median follow-up of 24.8 years (19.4-24.9 years), 2,010 participants had an incident cancer and 899 a cardiac event. The risk of cancer (any site) decreased by 9% (HR: 0.91) per 1-point increase in the CVH score (defined according to the American Heart Association criteria using self-reported data) in 1989/1990 compared with a 20% (HR: 0.80) risk reduction for cardiac events. The risk of cancer decreased by 5% (HR: 0.95) per unit of improvement in the CVH score between 1989/1990 and 1996/1997 compared with a 7% risk reduction for cardiac events (HR: 0.93). The associations remained after omitting the smoking metric from the CVH score. The results complement findings of previous US studies with that better CVH at baseline and an improvement in CVH over time were each independently related to a lower risk of cancer. It is never too late to improve CVH. Source: https://www.jacc.org/