Women face an elevated risk of developing atrial fibrillation (AFib) in the first year after being diagnosed with breast cancer, according to new findings published in European Heart Journal.
Researchers examined SEER data from more than 85,000 women diagnosed with breast cancer from 2007 to 2014. All patients were 66 years old or older. The cohort was matched with an equal number of healthy women without breast cancer.
Overall, the group found, in the first year after receiving their diagnosis, 4% of breast cancer patients developed AFib. Among the health patients, meanwhile, 2% developed AFib during the same time period.
AFib was also found to be more common among patients who did not undergo surgery or radiation treatment as their first course of therapy. In addition, the AFib risk did appear to be higher for patients who underwent “more complicated” procedures such as a mastectomy than it was for patients undergoing more simple procedures such as a lumpectomy. AFib was also more likely among women who already had advanced breast cancer when they received their diagnosis.
“There has been a significant increase in the number of women who survive breast cancer, but increased heart and blood vessel problems have become limitations of optimal outcomes,” lead author Avirup Guha, MD, an assistant professor of medicine at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, said in a prepared statement. “While AFib in people without cancer is associated with an overall poor prognosis, until now little has been known about outcomes from the condition after a breast cancer diagnosis.”
Another key finding from the team’s analysis was that women who already had AFib before their breast cancer diagnosis did not appear to face significantly higher risk of death. Developing AFib within the first 30 days of a diagnosis, meanwhile, made the risk of all-cause mortality within that first year twice as high.
“An important point is that those with existing AFib were not at increased risk of dying after breast cancer diagnosis compared to those who did not develop AFib,” Guha added. “This may be because they were already well managed from a cardiovascular standpoint. Therefore, it’s possible that involvement of cardio-oncology in the care of breast cancer patients may mitigate the mortality outcomes noted in this study.”
The full study is available here.
Michael has more than 16 years of experience as a professional writer and editor. He has written at length about cardiology, radiology, artificial intelligence and other key healthcare topics.