Abstract
BACKGROUND: Previous studies have not fully explored the association between air pollutants and heart failure (HF) incidence in cancer participants, nor the role of genetic susceptibility. We aimed to assess air pollutants’ impact on HF risk and their joint contribution with genetic susceptibility to incident HF in this group.
METHODS: This study utilized data from the UK Biobank and included 50 923 cancer participants. The relationship between air pollutants and the onset of HF was examined using a Cox proportional hazards model. Furthermore, a polygenic risk score was constructed to evaluate the comprehensive impact of air pollutant exposure, genetic susceptibility, and their interactions on the risk of HF among cancer participants.
RESULTS: The research results show that when comparing individuals in the lowest exposure quartile with those in the highest exposure quartile, the multivariate-adjusted HRs were 1.22 (1.07, 1.38) for PM10, 1.16 (1.03, 1.32) for PM2.5, 1.20 (1.06, 1.36) for NO2, and 1.26 (1.11, 1.43) for NOx. For the joint associations, cancer participants with both high genetic risk and elevated air pollutant exposure exhibited the highest risk of HF events. The risk estimates for the incidence of HF were 2.06 (1.52, 2.78) for PM10, 1.70 (1.27, 2.27) for PM2.5 1.77 (1.32, 2.37) for NO2, and 1.61 (1.21, 2.13) for NOx.
CONCLUSION: Our findings indicate that long-term combined exposure to multiple air pollutants, including PM2.5, PM10, NO2, and NOx, is associated with an elevated risk of new-onset HF in cancer patients, particularly among individuals with a high genetic predisposition to the disease.