Healthy diet may lower heart disease risk after cancer

Eating a healthy diet is associated with reduced risk of heart disease and death among cancer survivors, according to a study published today in JACC: Advances, a journal of the American College of Cardiology. Heart disease is the leading cause of non-cancer death among cancer survivors, and these findings underscore the importance of diet on cardiovascular health benefits and healthy longevity.

As cancer detection and treatment improve, more people are living with a history of cancer and facing a significantly increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), including those who have not received chemotherapy or radiation. Diet has an important role in the prevention and delaying of chronic disease and mortality; however, how healthy dietary patterns impact CVD risk among cancer survivors is not well understood.

“Given the adverse impact of CVD on patients’ survival and quality of life among cancer survivors, identifying prognostic factors is an urgent need to pinpoint high-risk subgroups and guide targeted clinical management within cardio-oncology care,” said Yang-Xin Chen, senior author of the study and clinician in the Department of Cardiology, Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, China.

In this study, researchers looked at the association between common healthy dietary patterns and CVD among cancer survivors to determine which dietary pattern was more predictive of CVD and life expectancy. Over 8,700 cancer survivors in the UK Biobank cohort who did not have CVD initially were analyzed, and after about 12 years of follow up, 1,116 had experienced a CVD event.

Mediterranean diet (MED), Mediterranean-Dietary Approaches to stop Hypertension Diet Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay (MIND), Alternate Healthy Eating Index-2010 (AHEI-2010), DASH, Healthful Plant-Based Diet Index (hPDI), reversed energy‑adjusted diet inflammatory index (E-DII) and Healthy low-fat diet (HLFD) dietary patterns all showed protective associations against cardiovascular events. Healthy low-carbohydrate diet (HLCD) showed no significant benefit. AHEI-2010 was associated with a lower risk of ischemic heart disease and stroke. DASH was associated with a lower risk of heart failure. MIND yielded the lowest HR for all-cause mortality and the largest gains in life expectancy.

Participants with the highest adherence to a healthy diet increased life expectancy from 1.66 to 3.32 years more than those with low adherence.

“Our findings suggest that the cardiovascular benefits of diet in cancer survivors are not confined to one ‘ideal’ diet but are observed across several evidence-based healthy dietary patterns, supporting a flexible rather than prescriptive nutritional approach in cancer survivorship care,” Chen said in the manuscript.