RISK-FACTORS FOR MYOCARDIAL-INFARCTION IN CANCER-PATIENTS

The increasingly long survival of cancer patients raises the question whether there might be an association between myocardial infarction (M I) and different types of cancer, especially since these different dis eases share some of the same risk factors, like smoking. We describe a retrospective study in which we examined the autopsied hearts of 1642 cancer patients to determine the incidence of MI in different types o f cancer and then studied the records of 106 of these cancer patients with complicated of fatal MI to determine their risk factors. The inci dence of MI among the 1642 cancer patients was 6.5%. It was significan tly higher in patients with squamous cell type cancers of the lung, he ad and neck, and urothelial tract cancer as compared with other types of cancers. The major coronary artery disease (CAD) risk factors in th ese patients were smoking, hypertension and left ventricular hypertrop hy. Before therapy begins, cancer patients, especially those with squa mous-cell-type cancer, should be screened for CAD risk factors, such a s smoking, hypertension and left ventricular hypertrophy, and treated accordingly.