Cancer, Cardiovascular Disease, and Body Weight: a Complex Relationship

Abstract

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. Obese patients are at an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and weight loss can attenuate the risk. Cancer is the second leading cause of death and commonly associated with weight loss. This review focuses on the complex interaction between body weight, cardiovascular disease, and a cancer diagnosis. The cancer-associated mortality rate has steadily decreased over the last decade. Patients are living longer. Therefore, nonmalignant conditions, such as cardiovascular disease, have assumed an increased importance in cancer survivors. Moreover, patients with cancer are at an especially high risk for cardiovascular disease, due to side effects of various treatments and overlapping risk factors for both malignancy and heart disease. In cancers with a high likelihood of survival or cure, cardiovascular screening, risk factor modification, and attentive treatment of cardiovascular problems should be vigilantly pursued. Like all individuals, patients with cancer should strive to maintain a healthy weight and participate in regular physical activity, with a goal to optimize cardiac health and health span. Weight loss has a cardioprotective effect in cancer survivors without obvious cancer progression. The notion that cardiac health is a low priority for cancer survivors, particularly for patients with a favorable prognosis, is not true. However, in advanced stages of cancer or with highly lethal cancers, weight loss is associated with poor outcomes and nutritional support to optimize nutritional status and maintain body weight should be prioritized.