Raised cardiovascular disease mortality after central nervous system tumour diagnosis: analysis of 171 926 patients from UK and USA

Background Patients with central nervous system (CNS) tumours have significant morbidity and mortality. Some studies showed CNS tumours patients may be at risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality. The magnitude of CVD risk among CNS tumours patients has not been comprehensively assessed. If CVD mortality is elevated in this population, there may be a potential for risk reduction to improve outcomes. We examined CVD mortality risk in patients with malignant and non-malignant CNS tumours. Methods We conducted analyses using UK (Wales)-based Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) for 8,743 CNS tumour patients diagnosed in 2000-2015 (54.9% of whom died), and US-based National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) for 163,183 patients in 2005-2015 (39.6% of whom died). We calculated age-, sex-, and calendar-year-adjusted standardised mortality ratios (SMRs) for CVD death in CNS tumour patients compared to Welsh and US residents. We used multivariable cause-specific Cox regression models to examine factors associated with CVD mortality among CNS tumour patients. We stratified all analyses by malignancy and main histological types. Results CVD was the second commonest cause of death for CNS tumour patients in SAIL (UK) and SEER (US) (9.5% & 11.7%, respectively). Patients with CNS tumours had higher CVD mortality than the general population (SAIL SMR=2.64, 95% CI=2.39-2.90, SEER SMR=1.38, 95% CI=1.35-1.42). Malignant CNS tumour patients had over 2-fold higher CVD mortality risk in both US and UK cohorts. SMRs for non-malignant tumours were almost 2-fold higher in SAIL than in SEER (SAIL SMR=2.73, 95% CI=2.46-3.02, SEER 1.30, 95% CI=1.26-1.33). The greatest magnitude of excess CVD mortality risk, particularly from cerebrovascular disease, was substantially greater in patients diagnosed at age younger than 50 years and within the first year after their cancer diagnosis (SAIL SMR=2.98, 95% CI=2.39-3.66; SEER SMR=2.14 95% CI=2.03-2.25). Age, sex, race/ethnicity in USA, deprivation in UK and no surgery were associated with CVD mortality. Discussion CVD mortality is high among patients diagnosed with both malignant and non-malignant CNS tumours compared to the general population. Targeted interventions and risk stratification tools might improve survival.