Men With Prostate Cancer More Likely to Suffer from Heart Attack

A new study has suggested that men who are diagnosed with prostate cancer (CaP) are more likely to have a heart attack or what one calls cardio-vascular (CV) morbidity.

It is known that emotional stress is linked to CV morbidity and mortality, such as reported during earthquakes, loss of a child and during world cup soccer matches. Emotional triggers result in physiological responses on the vascular, inflammatory and immune systems.

Now, such severe physiologic changes can later aggravate existing co-morbidities or even initiate new ones.

For the analyses, the researchers made use of many Swedish registries. In fact, a cohort study was designed for men older than 30 years and in this way four million men were identified.

In the first year after CaP diagnosis, fatal CV events among men diagnosed with CaP was 15pct higher than those without a CaP diagnosis and non-fatal CV events were 13pct higher.

These relative risks decreased during more recent time periods studied, possibly reflecting better medical management over time.

Therefore, it was found that men diagnosed with CaP are at increased risk of both CV morbidity and death within the first year after diagnosis. Men younger than 54 years are at greatest risk.

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According to the researchers, this stress-induced risk warrants further study.

This study was presented by F. Fang at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) - 2008 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium - A Multidisciplinary Approach.

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Source-ANI
SRM/L