Gilberto Lopes, Chief of the Division of Medical Oncology at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, shared on X:
“Our new systematic review and meta-analysis was published today in Cancers. Young people with cancer may face elevated cardiovascular risks, sometimes years after treatment. 58 studies from 36 unique cohort sources.
Pooled HRs (95% CIs):
- Pulmonary embolism 4.63 (3.03-7.06)
- Heart failure 4.08 (2.20-7.57)
- Venous thrombosis 4.06 (2.51-6.58)
- Cardiomyopathy 3.52 (2.21-5.63)
Relative associations – not individual absolute risks.
Arrhythmia HR 1.37 (1.19-1.58); stroke HR 1.33 (1.10-1.61). Cardiovascular mortality was also elevated, but with extreme heterogeneity (I²=99.1%) and considerable uncertainty about the magnitude.
Important caveats: observational evidence, varied age groups/cancers/treatment eras, and low certainty for most outcomes. We could not disentangle the effects of cancer from those of specific treatments.
Survivorship care should address cardiovascular health and known cardiotoxic exposures. But this review does NOT establish that intensified screening improves outcomes. Prospective, risk-adapted research is needed.
Cancer survivorship means more than avoiding recurrence: it means protecting long-term health. Grateful to Musa Kiyani and our collaborators.”
Title: Excess Cardiovascular Burden Among Young Patients with Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Authors: Musa Kiyani, Robert J. Heins, John Hayssam Yazji, Harith Almimar, Gilberto de Lima Lopes, Junior
Read the full article.
About Gilberto Lopes
Gilberto Lopes is a Brazilian-born medical oncologist and Professor of Clinical Medicine at the University of Miami. He serves as Chief of the Division of Medical Oncology at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, where his work focuses on lung cancer, immunotherapy, clinical trials, and improving global access to cancer treatments.
- Specialization: Lung cancer, thoracic oncology, cancer drug development, and immunotherapy.
- Research: Has published more than 270 scientific papers and participated in or led hundreds of clinical trials.
- Clinical research: Was the principal investigator of the KEYNOTE-042 trial, which helped establish pembrolizumab (Keytruda) as a treatment option for advanced non-small cell lung cancer.
Read more articles about Gilberto Lopes on OncoDaily.
