Cardiac patients diagnosed with “broken heart syndrome” are twice as likely to face clinical complications during treatment if they have a history of cancer, Italian researchers reported this week at the ESC Congress in Munich.
Broken heart syndrome—medically known as takotsubo cardiomyopathy—is a type of sudden heart failure thought to be triggered in part by increased levels of stress hormones, study author Francesco Santoro, MD, said in a release. Around 30 percent of takotsubo cardiomyopathies are attributed to emotional triggers, like the death of a spouse, but 40 percent of patients are triggered into the condition by something physical, like surgery. Santoro said past research has suggested cancer might be a physical trigger.
For their research, Santoro and his team looked into the association between cancer and adverse outcomes in patients admitted to the hospital with broken heart syndrome. More than 500 patients were enrolled in the study, one in five of whom had previous or current cancer.
Santoro said that after examining the risk of in-hospital and post-discharge adverse outcomes together, the researchers were able to conclude takotsubo cardiomyopathy patients with past or existing cancer were at a significantly higher risk for clinical events than patients without cancer experience. Gastrointestinal cancers were the most common in the study population, affecting around 23 percent of cancer patients, while nervous system and urinary cancers were rare.
“We found that takotsubo cardiomyopathy patients who had ever had cancer were at greater risk of adverse events, particularly after discharge from hospital,” Santoro said in the release. “More research is needed to clarify the reasons for this. These patients might benefit from standard therapy for heart failure, especially an ACE inhibitor or angiotensin receptor blocker.”
Results were similar when Santoro and his colleagues assessed the risk of in-hospital and post-discharge events separately, he said.
“In our study, patients with broken heart syndrome were twice as likely to die or be readmitted to hospital within three years if they had previous or current cancer than if they did not,” he said. “Patients with broken heart syndrome and cancer need strict monitoring at follow-up.”
After graduating from Indiana University-Bloomington with a bachelor’s in journalism, Anicka joined TriMed’s Chicago team in 2017 covering cardiology. Close to her heart is long-form journalism, Pilot G-2 pens, dark chocolate and her dog Harper Lee.