Predicting and preventing heart and circulatory diseases in cancer survivors

Using national observational linkage data to investigate cardiovascular risk and outcomes in cancer populations and to develop a risk prediction tool for modifiable prevention targets

After a cancer diagnosis, doctors investigate whether people also have any existing heart and circulatory diseases. This is because many cancer treatments have side effects on the heart, and the type and intensity of treatment needs to be planned accordingly. However, currently there is limited information about how a person’s heart and circulatory health at time of a cancer diagnosis affects a person’s future risk of developing heart and circulatory diseases, and whether this differs depending on their cancer type. Professor Umesh Kadam and his team at the University of Leicester will use anonymized NHS patient records from a group of people aged 40 years and over who had either breast, prostate, stomach or lung cancer. They will link together participants’ historic data held in GP databases, hospital admission records and cancer registries. Professor Kadam hopes finding any connections could reveal whether cancer changes the risk factors for heart and circulatory diseases, and if so when. This study could help identify the main risk factors for heart and circulatory diseases after cancer diagnosis and treatment, which could help doctors to set up preventive treatment to reduce their risk.