Testicular cancer heart risk fears

NEW YORK: Young men who survive testicular cancer may need to worry about more than a return of their disease: a new study suggests they also face greater heart risks down the road.

Dr Timothy Gilligan, chairperson of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Guidelines Panel on Testicular Cancer, said that “for testicular cancer survivors, as with most cancer survivors, the medical concerns don’t end with remission”.

“Testicular cancer survivors whose treatment included chemotherapy, radiation therapy, or both, have an increased risk of dying from cardiovascular disease,” Gilligan said. “This study provides valuable information as we try to understand why.”

Researcher Dr Mohammad Abu Zaid, an assistant professor of medicine at Indiana University’s Cancer Centre, said the main goal of the study was “to implement early interventions to reduce the risk of heart disease”.

Abu Zaid and his colleagues analysed 486 testicular cancer survivors who were treated with platinum-based chemotherapy. They found the patients had higher-than-normal risk of heart disease.

The researchers reported that compared with men who had not had testicular cancer the survivors were more likely to have high blood pressure (about 43% versus 31%); higher amounts of “bad” cholesterol (nearly 18% versus 9%); higher overall cholesterol levels (26% versus 11%). They were also more likely to be overweight (75% versus 69%).

“We found that one in 10 testicular cancer survivors under age 30 had metabolic syndrome, and that increased to more than a third of patients over age 50,” Abu Zaid said.

Metabolic syndrome is defined as three or more of the following conditions: high blood pressure, abdominal obesity, elevated triglyceride (a type of blood fat) levels, decreased levels of good cholesterol and diabetes.

“There are no criteria for determining what exactly causes metabolic syndrome.

“Developing those criteria requires long-term follow-ups of cancer survivors,” Abu Zaid said.

The study was published online recently in the Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network.