Does the pathophysiology of heart failure prime the incidence of cancer?

Both chronic heart failure (CHF) and cancer are among the most frequent causes of death in developed countries. Given that CHF activates neurohumoral factors, such as cytokines, the pathophysiology of CHF could prime the onset or progression of cancer. We consecutively enrolled 5238 patients with CHF who had been hospitalized in the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine in our institute between 2001 and 2013. We followed these patients until April 2015. We examined the cohort of patients from our hospital and compared it with a control cohort derived from the 2008 cancer database 'Monitoring of Cancer Incidence in Japan' from the National Cancer Center, Japan. The incidence of cancer in CHF patients (198 cases out of the 5238 patients) was approximately four times higher than that in control patients (2.27% vs 0.59%, P<0.0001; 95% confidence interval, 1.89-2.71). When we omitted the patients whose cancer diagnosis occurred prior to their diagnosis of CHF, we still observed a significantly higher incidence of cancer in patients with CHF than in controls. Based on our results, we suggest that there is a strong correlation between the pathophysiology of CHF and cancer. Given that CHF could prime the onset of cancers, we recommend that clinicians should be vigilant regarding cancer comorbidity in patients with CHF.