Outcome and presentation of heart failure in breast cancer patients: findings from a Swedish register-based study

Heart failure (HF) patients diagnosed with breast cancer (BC) may have a higher risk of death, and different HF presentation and treatment than patients without BC.

A total of 14 998 women with incident HF (iHF) or prevalent HF (pHF) enrolled in the Swedish HF Registry within and after 1 month since HF diagnosis, respectively, between 2008 and 2013. Patients were linked with the National Patient-, Cancer-, and Cause-of-Death Registry. Two hundred and ninety-four iHF and 338 pHF patients with BC were age-matched to 1470 iHF and 1690 pHF patients without BC. Comorbidity and treatment characteristics were compared using the χ² tests for categories. Cox proportional hazard models assessed the hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality among HF patients with and without BC. In the pHF group, BC patients had less often myocardial infarction (21.6% vs. 28.6%, P < 0.01) and received less often aspirin (47.6% vs. 55.1%, P = 0.01), coronary revascularization (11.8% vs. 16.2%, P < 0.01), or device therapy (0.9% vs. 3.0%, P = 0.03). After median follow-up of 2 years, risk of all-cause mortality (iHF: HR = 1.04, 95% CI = 0.83–1.29 and pHF: HR = 0.94, 95% CI = 0.79–1.12), cardiovascular mortality (iHF: HR = 0.94, 95% CI = 0.71–1.24 and pHF: HR = 0.89, 95% CI = 0.71–1.10), and HF mortality (iHF: HR = 0.80, 95% CI = 0.34–1.90 and pHF: HR = 0.75, 95% CI = 0.43–1.29) were similar for patients with and without BC in the iHF and pHF groups.

Risk of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in HF patients did not differ by BC status. Differences in pre-existing myocardial infarction and HF treatment among pHF patients with and without BC may suggest differences in pathogenesis of HF.