Patients with heart disease may be at increased risk for advanced breast cancer: JAMA

The case-control study looked at data from more than 19,000 individuals with a median age of 73 and compared the presence of CVD between patients with early (stage I-II) and advanced cancer (stage III-IV). The increased risk was present both for patients with locally advanced and metastatic breast cancer.

According to the National Cancer Institute, HR+/HER2− breast cancer constitutes nearly 70% of all breast cancer cases. When caught at an early stage, before it metastasizes, the disease is very treatable. However, the five-year relative survival rate for metastatic HR+/ HER2- breast cancer is only 34%, underscoring the need for prevention and early detection.

Cardiovascular disease is the cause of nearly one million deaths in the U.S. annually. This class of conditions can include coronary heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, heart failure, hypertension and arterial disease.

Of those individuals included in the study, 49% were found to have CVD. The cohort was pulled from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER)-Medicare linked databases from 2009-2020. The analysis was completed from May 2023 to August 2024.

“The study could help inform personalized screening strategies, as it suggests that individuals with CVD may benefit from earlier or more frequent breast cancer screenings to catch the disease at an earlier, more treatable stage," Nead said.

Limitations of the study include the fact that it was observational and does not demonstrate causality, susceptibility to residual bias, potential for misclassification of CVD, and lack of control for potential compounding factors, including smoking. The cohort was primarily white, which may also impact the generalizability of the findings. 

Reference:

Angelov I, Haas AM, Brock E, et al. Cardiovascular Disease and Breast Cancer Stage at Diagnosis. JAMA Netw Open. 2025;8(1):e2452890. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.52890