Compared with other race/ethnic groups, Black patients have the highest risk of developing heart failure, according to the American Heart Association. A study shows that 1 in 100 Black men and women could develop heart failure before the age of 50. Risk factors that can prevent Blacks from developing heart failure include high blood pressure and obesity. Living with heart failure is hard enough, but a new study suggests that these patients may also face a higher risk of cancer, another disease that affects the Black community at a far higher rate than other communities. That is why it is so important for Black Americans to know the risk factors.
Researchers looked at more than 100,000 heart failure patients and the same number of people without heart failure.
Their average age was just over 72 and none had cancer at the start of the study.
Over 10 years of follow-up, cancer rates were 25.7% among heart failure patients and 16.2% among those without heart failure.
By gender, rates were 28.6% in women with heart failure, 18.8% in women without heart failure, 23.2% in men with heart failure and 13.8% in men without heart failure.
The study was presented June 28 at an online meeting of the European Society of Cardiology and simultaneously published in the journal ESC Heart Failure.
“This was an observational study and the results do not prove that heart failure causes cancer,” says study author Mark Luedde says from Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel and Cardiology Joint Practice Bremerhaven in Germany. “However, the findings do suggest that heart failure patients may benefit from cancer prevention measures.”
Heart failure affects roughly 65 million people worldwide. Black males between the ages of 45 and 54 have a 70 percent higher risk than whites of developing heart failure. While African American women have a 50 percent higher risk.
There are four risk factors that cause Black people to be 20 times more likely to develop heart failure, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine :
“Our results allow us to speculate that there may be a causal relationship between heart failure and an increased rate of cancer. This is biologically plausible, as there is experimental evidence that factors secreted by the failing heart may stimulate tumor growth,” Luedde says in an ESC news release.
“While heart failure and cancer share common risk factors such as obesity and diabetes, these were accounted for in the analysis by matching,” he explains.
The researchers did not have information on smoking, alcohol consumption or physical activity, so these factors were not used in the analysis.
It is important that you maintain a good relationship with your doctor, know your medical history, take part in screenings and take preventive measures to prevent yourself from developing heart failure or cancer.
High blood pressure is the major risk factor for heart failure so start by making sure you’re keeping track of your numbers and asking your doctor the important questions:
“It is common practice for cancer patients who have received heart-damaging drugs to be monitored for heart failure. Conversely, evidence is accumulating to indicate that heart failure patients could benefit from intensive monitoring for cancer development — for example through screening,” Luedde says. “Considering the high incidence of both diseases and their impact of the lives of those affected, these patients deserve the maximum joint efforts of cardiologists and oncologists.”
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