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Risk of Cardiovascular
Disease in Survivors of Breast Cancer
With respect to
the conclusions of our study, we should make a distinction between
patients treated in the past and patients of the present. For patients
treated in the 1970s/1980s we found moderately increased risk of
myocardial infarction, angina pectoris and congestive heart failure in
comparison with the general female population in the Netherlands. Risk of
heart disease depended on the type of treatment received. In general,
irradiated patients experienced higher risk of cardiac disease than
patients who underwent surgery only. Speaking in absolute numbers: if we
would follow 1000 women from our study for 10 years, we would have
expected 215 cardiac events to occur (based on incidence rates of the
Dutch population) while we found 70 more events among the irradiated
breast cancer patients, a 33% increase in risk. Our advice to women who
had radiotherapy during the "higher risk" years would be to
control and/or treat any existing cardiovascular risk factors, like high
blood pressure, diabetes mellitus, hypercholesterolemia, and of course, to
stop smoking. Bibliographic reference:
Maartje
J. Hooning
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