Key clinical point: Exposure to fluoropyrimidine-based adjuvant chemotherapy increased the risk for incident cardiovascular disease (CVD) in patients with high-risk stage II-III colorectal cancer (CRC) without preexisting CVD, highlighting the importance of cardiovascular risk monitoring.
Major finding: Patients with CRC receiving fluoropyrimidine-based adjuvant chemotherapy had a nearly 2-fold higher risk for CVD compared with control individuals without cancer (adjusted cause-specific hazard ratio 2.11; P < .001).
Study details: The data come from a population-based study including 1037 patients with high-risk stage II-III CRC treated with radical surgery followed by adjuvant chemotherapy, of which 102 patients received fluoropyrimidine-based adjuvant chemotherapy, and 5078 control individuals without cancer or a CVD history.
Disclosures: This study was supported by El Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Spain. The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
Source: Lee SF et al. Incident cardiovascular diseases among survivors of high-risk stage II-III colorectal cancer: A cluster-wide cohort study. J Natl Compr Canc Netw. 2022;20(10):1125-1133.e10 (Oct). Doi: 10.6004/jnccn.2022.7042