Cardiovascular Problems Appear in Endometrial Cancer Survivors Years After Treatment

ENDOMETRIAL CANCER SURVIVORS ARE at greater risk of developing cardiovascular diseases and may need increased monitoring for 10 years after diagnosis, according to the findings of a study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Using the Utah Population Database, researchers identified 2,648 survivors who had received a diagnosis of endometrial cancer between 1997 and 2012. The results indicated that 25.7 percent of those patients were diagnosed with heart diseases five to 10 years after cancer diagnosis. Survivors of endometrial cancer were 47 percent more likely than women in the general population to be diagnosed with a disease of the heart between one to five years after cancer diagnosis and 33 percent more likely five to 10 years after the initial cancer diagnosis.

Researchers observed elevated risk during the one-to-five-year period for peripheral and vascular atherosclerosis, hypotension, phlebitis, thromboembolism, and other circulatory and lymphatic diseases. They found associations for hypotension, diseases of veins and lymphatics, and other diseases of veins and lymphatics. Survivors of endometrial cancer were at increased risk of phlebitis, thrombophlebitis and thromboembolism, lymphatic diseases, pulmonary heart disease, and atrial fibrillation during the earlier time period, with some elevated risk for cardiovascular diseases persisting at five to 10 years.

Compared with patients who had surgery, patients who also had radiation therapy or chemotherapy were at increased risk of heart and circulatory system disorders from one to five years after cancer diagnosis.

“Prior studies have reported similar proportions of endometrial cancer survivors who have hypertension diagnoses, but this study is the first to quantify risk for hypertension after cancer diagnosis among uterine cancer survivors compared (with) the general population,” noted the researchers.