Approved Research

Risk factors in terms of lifestyle, diet, treatment, genetic susceptibility, plasma metabolites on the incidence and mortality of cardio-metabolic disease among patients with cancer

Lay summary

Aims: This project aims to examine whether patients with cancer are more likely to suffer from or die of cardio-metabolic disease than the general population, and to determine which type of cancer are specifically related to the nature course of cardio-metabolic disease (cardiovascular disease, hypertension and diabetes). Further, this project also aims to examine the causal relationship between cancer and cardio-metabolic disease. Moreover, we also intend to examine the association of risk factors with the natural course of cardio-metabolic disease among patients with cancer, and to what extent that the genetic susceptibility, biomarkers in blood samples mediate this association.

Scientific rationale: More and more many clinicians have observed that cardio-metabolic disease (cardiovascular disease, hypertension and diabetes) plays important roles for the long-term survival among patients with cancer. The recent studies have observed that many cancer therapies are frequently associated with cardiovascular complications, and women who are diagnosed by breast cancer are more like to suffer heart attack or to die due to cardiovascular disease. Also, some observational data have found that cancer might share genetic, risk factors with cardio-metabolic diseases. Therefore, based on this evidence, we hypothesized that different types of cancer may specifically related to occurrence of some types of cardio-metabolic disease, and some therapies or drugs for cancers probably associated with cardio-metabolic disease.

Project duration and public health impact: This project duration is estimated for 3 years.

About two-thirds of global non-communicable disease deaths were attributable to cardiovascular disease and cancer, and many clinicians have found that some patients with cancer were died due to cardiovascular disease rather than cancer. It is reported that about 35% of cancer survivors in the United States have cardiovascular disease compared to about 23% of the general population, and 11.3% of cancer patients are died due to cardiovascular disease. Hypertension (59.7%), hyperlipidemia (53.6%), arthritis (25.6%), diabetes (22.2%), and coronary artery disease (18.2%) were the five most prevalent chronic conditions among patients with cancer. Therefore, it is important to elucidate the potential risk factors for these complications among patients with cancer, which may improve the long-term survival among patients with cancer by providing evidence in terms of the treatment, risk factors for these patients to reduce the risk of cardio-metabolic disease. This will also help to avoid overtreatment and reduce social financial burden on healthcare.