RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Comprehensive analysis of clinico-pathological data reveals heterogeneous relations between atherosclerosis and cancer
JF Journal of Clinical Pathology
JO J Clin Pathol
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and Association of Clinical Pathologists
SP 482
OP 490
DO 10.1136/jclinpath-2013-202148
VO 67
IS 6
A1 Budczies, Jan
A1 von Winterfeld, Moritz
A1 Klauschen, Frederick
A1 Kimmritz, Anna-Christin
A1 Daniel, Jan-Marcus
A1 Warth, Arne
A1 Endris, Volker
A1 Denkert, Carsten
A1 Pfeiffer, Heidi
A1 Weichert, Wilko
A1 Dietel, Manfred
A1 Wittschieber, Daniel
A1 Stenzinger, Albrecht
YR 2014
UL http://jcp.bmj.com/content/67/6/482.abstract
AB Aims Atherosclerosis and cancer share common risk factors and involve similar molecular pathomechanisms. Most clinical and epidemiological studies show a positive correlation between atherosclerosis and smoking-related cancers and heterogeneous results for non-smoking-related cancers. However, up-to-date large-scale autopsy studies including a detailed analysis of cancer types are lacking. Therefore, we sought to investigate the relation between major cancer types and the grade of atherosclerosis in a recent well-powered autopsy cohort. Methods In 2101 patients, both autopsy data and clinical data including demographics, disease groups, tumour type, cause of death and grade of atherosclerosis were reviewed and statistically analysed. Results We found cancer in general is associated with less atherosclerosis (OR 0.60, p<0.0001). In particular, haematological neoplasm and sarcomas were associated with much less atherosclerosis (OR=0.45, p<0.0001 and OR=0.43, p=0.087), while carcinomas were associated with moderately less atherosclerosis (OR=0.72, p=0.002). Furthermore, non-smoking-related cancers were associated with much less atherosclerosis (OR=0.41, p<0.0001), while possibly smoking-related cancer and smoking-related cancer showed no significant association. In a comprehensive analysis of 21 cancer types, biliary tract cancer, lymphomas/lymphoid leukaemias and kidney cancer were associated with much less atherosclerosis (OR=0.19, p<0.0001; OR=0.41, p<0.0001; and OR=0.48, p=0.029). In an exploratory analysis of treatment strategies, we found that tumours with a recommendation of oxazaphosphorines and pyrimidine antagonist treatment were significantly associated with less atherosclerosis (OR=0.33, p=0.0068 and OR=0.58, p=0.012). Conclusions In conclusion, the study showed an inverse association between cancer and atherosclerosis postmortem that depends on the cancer type and suggests a possible impact of chemotherapy regimens.