CANCER RISK OF PATIENTS DISCHARGED WITH ACUTE MYOCARDIAL INFARCT

We studied whether common shared environmental or behavioral risk fact ors, other than tobacco smoking, underlie both atherosclerotic disease s and cancer. We identified a group of 96,891 one-year survivors of ac ute myocardial infarct through the Danish Hospital Discharge Register between 1977 and 1989. We calculated the incidence of cancer in this g roup by linking it to the Danish Cancer Registry for the period 1978-1 993. There was no consistent excess over the expected figures for any of the categories of cancer not related to tobacco smoking. Specifical ly, the rates of colorectal cancer in acute population, as were the ra tes for hormone-related cancers, including endometrial and postmenopau sal breast cancers. We found a moderate increase in the risk for tobac co-related cancers, which was strongest for patients with early onset of acute myocardial infarct and for female patients. Overall, there do not seem to be major shared environmental or behavioral risk factors for acute myocardial infarct and cancers, except for smoking, and ther e seems to be no common inherited susceptibility to the development of these diseases.