The risk of developing cancer is significantly higher in survivors of an acute MI compared to the general population, according to a large Danish national registry study.
“Greater focus on long-term cancer risk is warranted in MI survivors. This could potentially have implications on future patient care for MI patients, outpatient follow-up strategies, and distribution of health care resources,” Morten Winther Malmborg said at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology.
He presented a nationwide cohort study including 3,005,734 Danish adults with no baseline history of MI or cancer who were followed for up to 17 years in the comprehensive Danish National Patient Registry. During the study period, 125,926 of these individuals had a nonfatal MI.
The subsequent incidence of cancer in the MI survivors was 167 cases per 10,000 person-years compared with 95 per 10,000 person-years in the control group, reported Mr. Malmborg, a fourth-year medical student at the University of Copenhagen.
Source: Family Practice News