Cancer is associated with atrial fibrillation! Results of a study of 820,000 patients in South Korea

A nationwide study in South Korea covering nearly 820,000 cancer patients suggests that compared with the general population, cancer patients have a significantly increased risk of atrial fibrillation, especially those with hematological malignancies (commonly known as blood cancer), lung cancer, esophageal cancer, and nervous system cancer.

Multivariate regression analysis showed that cancer was an independent risk factor for atrial fibrillation, and the risk of atrial fibrillation in cancer patients was 63% higher than that in the general population.

The researchers also found that the risk of atrial fibrillation varied among patients with different cancers.

All patients with hematological malignancies have a high risk of atrial fibrillation. Among them, patients with multiple myeloma have the highest risk of atrial fibrillation, which is 3.34 times that of the general population. The risk of atrial fibrillation in patients with lymphoma and leukemia is 1.64 times and 1.29 times higher than that of the general population, respectively.

Among solid tumors, patients with esophageal cancer had the highest risk of atrial fibrillation, 2.69 times that of the general population, while patients with gastric cancer had the lowest risk, only 27% higher than the general population. The risk of atrial fibrillation in patients with nervous system tumors and lung cancer was 2.62 times and 2.39 times that of the general population, respectively.

In all subgroups, the risk of atrial fibrillation was higher in cancer patients than in people without cancer.

The researchers also found that the risk of atrial fibrillation decreased over time after being diagnosed with cancer (still 8% higher than the general population after 5 years), but the risk of atrial fibrillation was still high 5 years after being diagnosed with cancer in patients with hematological malignancies (multiple myeloma, leukemia, lymphoma), lung cancer, liver cancer, kidney cancer, and urinary system cancers.

The study included 816,811 cancer patients (involving 19 types of cancer) from the Korean National Health Insurance Service Database from 2009 to 2016, and included more than 1.63 million cancer-free people as controls at a ratio of 1:2.

At a median follow-up of 4.5 years, 3.1% of cancer patients had a new diagnosis of atrial fibrillation, compared with 1.9% of the control group.

Source: China Circulation Magazine