Cardiovascular characteristics of patients initially diagnosed breast cancer

Zhaoying Dong; Fan Zhang; Qiaojuan Huang; Zhaojun Liu; Siyu Chen; Tao Xu; Jun Xiao; Changhong Zhang; Xiaoli Zhou

doi:10.1186/s13019-021-01608-6

Cardiovascular characteristics of patients initially diagnosed breast cancer

J Cardiothorac Surg. 2021 Aug 12;16(1):231. doi: 10.1186/s13019-021-01608-6.

Authors

Zhaoying Dong¹, Fan Zhang², Qiaojuan Huang¹, Zhaojun Liu¹, Siyu Chen¹, Tao Xu³, Jun Xiao³, Changhong Zhang², Xiaoli Zhou⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Cardiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, 1 Youyi Road, Yuzhong District, Chongqing, 400000, China.
² School of Public Health and Management, Research Center for Medicine and Social Development, Collaborative Innovation of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, 400000, China.
³ Department of Endocrine and Breast Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, 400000, China.
⁴ Department of Cardiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, 1 Youyi Road, Yuzhong District, Chongqing, 400000, China. zhouxiaoli_dr@yeah.net.

Abstract

Objective: We aimed to explore the cardiovascular characteristics of patients who were initially diagnosed with breast cancer.

Methods: A total of 600 patients who were diagnosed with primary breast cancer were included in this retrospective study. The data of fasting blood glucose, total cholesterol, total triglyceride, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, lipoprotein (a) (LP (a)) and serum uric acid were collected. Univariate analysis was used to evaluate the cardiovascular risk factors (CVRFs) in patients with breast cancer. The arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) risk assessment was performed. Multivariate analysis was used to identify the factors that influenced axillary lymph node metastasis (ALNM).

Results: Compared with the premenopausal group, the prevalence of overweight/obesity (47.6% vs. 35.2%), diabetes (12.8% vs. 4.3%) and hypertension (49.7% vs. 26.3%) were significantly increased in the postmenopausal group (p < 0.05). Comparisons of rural patients and urban patients showed that there were significant differences in the diagnostic age (49.94 ± 9.92 vs. 52.59 ± 11.13) in the rural patients was notably younger in comparison with the urban patients (p < 0.05). However, the number of menopausal patients (44.3% vs. 53.3%) in the rural group were decreased in comparison with the urban group (p < 0.05). In ASCVD risk stratification, the proportion of low-risk patients (56.4% vs. 90.8%), medium-risk patients (20.6% vs 0.3%) and high-risk patients (19.3% vs. 6.6%) were significantly different between the postmenopausal group and premenopausal group (p < 0.05). Residence (OR 0.735; 95% CI 0.516-1.046; p = 0.087), the number of children (OR 1.250; 95% CI 0.990-1.578; p = 0.061) and LP (a) of ≥ 500 mg/L (OR 0.603; 95% CI 0.342-1.063; p = 0.080) were independent influencing factors of ALNM.

Conclusion: Postmenopausal patients have more CVRFs and higher risks of ASCVD than premenopausal patients initially diagnosed with breast cancer. There was a correlation between CVRFs and ALNM in patients with breast cancer.

Keywords: Axillary lymph node metastasis; Breast cancer; Cardiovascular risk factors; Initial diagnosis.

MeSH terms

Breast Neoplasms* / diagnosis
Breast Neoplasms* / epidemiology
Cardiometabolic Risk Factors*
Female
Heart Disease Risk Factors
Humans
Middle Aged
Postmenopause
Retrospective Studies